ELECTION UPDATE | Trumbull expects faster, better election results

Trumbull expects faster, better election results

WARREN

Craig Bonar, former Trumbull County Republican Party chairman, says he thinks the results that start to come out of Trumbull County at about 9 p.m. will give a clearer picture of the result than in the past.

Bonar, a Trumbull elections board member, said a change expected to take effect with this election — counting the 11,000 absentee ballots at the beginning of the night instead of at the end — will provide a more representative sample of voters than in the past.

It could also produce earlier final results, Bonar says.

The Trumbull elections board has typically produced final results after the Mahoning County Board of Elections in recent years, in part because of the way Trumbull County counted absentee ballots.

Kelly Pallante, Trumbull elections board director, has explained in previous elections that Trumbull County’s electronic voting equipment did not allow workers to upload and display absentee results at the beginning of the night the way Mahoning County’s equipment did.

However, Trumbull County’s equipment received a software upgrade recently, and now the absentee ballots can be displayed and shown on the elections board web site with the first 10 precincts that arrive at the elections board offices.

In the past, the first precincts to report were the Warren precincts, and those tended to lean away from Republican candidates and issues, Bonar noted. The more conservative voters tend to be farther out from Warren, so their vote counts tended to come to the elections board last.

“I think you’ll get a truer picture right off the bat,” Bonar said.

The Trumbull elections board web site is www.electionohio.com/trumbull.