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2 options emerge to cut county voting precincts
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County Board of Elections plans Tuesday to reduce voting precincts for the November election as part of its cost-cutting plan.
The question is: How many precincts?
The two Republican board members — Vice Chairman Mark Munroe and Clarence Smith — support a plan to cut 29 of the county’s 287 precincts.
The two Democratic board members — Chairman Robert Wasko and Michael Morley — support a plan to reduce the number of precincts by 14.
Morley and Wasko could even be open to eliminating no precincts in November after hearing pleas Friday by officials with the Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods [ACTION], the Community Mobilization Committee and county Democratic Chairman David Betras.
Eliminating precincts is part of a comprehensive plan the board will consider at an 8 a.m. Tuesday meeting to reduce department expenses by $87,914.12 if 14 precincts are reduced or $98,414.12 if 27 precincts are consolidated.
The board saves $700 for each precinct it eliminates.
The 14-precinct plan keeps all voters at their current polling locations.
The 29-precinct proposal keeps voters in all but two precincts — Canfield city 6 and Austintown 40 — at their current locations.
Board Director Thomas McCabe, a Republican who came up with the 29-precinct proposal, suggested keeping those two precincts where they are if that would impact the board’s vote on cuts.
The board is on pace to be $185,000 over its $1.32 million budget this year, and is considering ways to reduce expenses.
The board met Friday for more than 21/2 hours to discuss various scenarios to save money.
All four members agree on the cuts proposed by Deputy Director Joyce Kale-Pesta.
That includes laying off two employees, reducing the hourly salary of part-timers from $9 to $8, requiring employees to pay more toward their retirement contributions, giving all full-timers an unpaid day off every two weeks, and reducing supplies used for elections.
The cost savings per election is $20,300 by reducing 29 precincts, and $9,800 with the 14-precinct cut.
But Betras and officials with ACTION and the Community Mobilization Committee, local activist groups, told the board Friday that they oppose reduction of any voting precincts at this point.
The Rev. Lewis Macklin, president of ACTION, said reducing precincts — even if voters go to the same polling locations — confuses people and could end up increasing the time some wait to vote. The end result, he said, is people may decide not to vote.
Waiting until after the November election is a better time to look at reducing precincts, he said.
The reduction won’t disenfranchise voters, and changing voting locations is common, Munroe said.
The board reduced its costs by about $200,000 in January. That included six of its clerks working nine months a year, reducing their annual salaries by 25 percent, and reducing the starting salaries for employees by about $14,000 annually.
To add to that, the board will definitely lay off two of its 11 clerks, as early as Tuesday.