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Board OKs directive on voting hours
YOUNGSTOWN
Over the objection of a member, the Mahoning County Board of Elections voted 3-1 to ratify a secretary of state directive on early-voting hours.
The directive from Secretary Jon Husted, issued last Wednesday, calls for uniformity in all 88 counties in Ohio when it comes to early voting.
The directive came after Husted broke ties in favor of Republicans in four large Democratic-leaning counties in which Democratic members of the boards of elections wanted extended and weekend voting and GOP members didn’t.
David Betras, the board’s vice chairman and the county’s Democratic Party chairman, objected Monday to voting on ratifying Husted’s directive.
The directive calls for early-voting hours at the board of elections, beginning Oct. 2, to start at 8 a.m. The end time is 5 p.m. from Oct. 2 to 19, except until 9 p.m. on Oct. 9. Early voting ends at 7 p.m. between Oct. 22 and Nov. 1, and at 6 p.m. on Nov. 2.
The directive also doesn’t permit weekend voting, which was in place during the 2008 presidential election.
Betras said there was no reason to vote to ratify the directive. It was an order from Husted, and despite not agreeing with it, Betras said he’d follow it.
“I don’t feel comfortable voting on it as [Husted has] established voting hours,” he said before the vote to Mark Munroe, chairman of the elections board and the county Republican Party. “If we don’t agree, you’re putting Bob [Wasko, the other Democrat on the board] and me in a terrible position as we’ll vote no and [Husted] could remove us” from the board.
Munroe said the directive calls for all boards to adopt the voting hours, which he interpreted as requiring a vote.
Matt McClellan, Husted’s spokesman, said, “Boards of elections do not approve or reject directives. Once issued by the secretary of state, they carry the force of law.”
The Mahoning board voted 3-1 in favor of ratifying the hours with Wasko joining Munroe and Clarence Smith Jr., the other Republican member, in the majority.
The board has, in the past, voted on early-voting hours, Wasko said adding that Monday’s vote is a “housekeeping measure.”
Wasko said he favors allowing voters to cast ballots during the weekend before the general election, something that is not permitted under state law and the subject of a lawsuit by the President Barack Obama re-election campaign against Husted.
Munroe said he agrees with Husted’s directive, and that “weekend hours have been the exception and not the rule.”
He added that the board votes on a number of issues required by the secretary of state.
“I didn’t see this as any different,” Munroe said.
Boards of elections in Trumbull and Columbiana counties also met Monday. Board members in those two counties discussed the hours, but didn’t vote to adopt them.
The two Democratic members of the Montgomery County Board of Elections voted Friday in support of a plan to extend early-voting hours past what Husted ordered with the two Republican members voting against it. Husted suspended the two Democrats from the board.