First-time early voters give Mahoning's process a thumbs-up

YOUNGSTOWN

A number of people tried early in-person voting for the first time on the first day to cast such ballots for this election.

Voter traffic was steady, but not heavy, on Tuesday, the first day of early in-person voting, Mahoning County election officials said.

Susan Peck of Boardman and Walt Flickinger Jr. of Struthers were among the first early voters in Mahoning County.

Both will be out of the area Nov. 4, Election Day, so they went Tuesday to the county board of elections in Oakhill Renaissance Place on Youngstown’s South Side to vote.

“I’ve never missed a vote in my life,” Flickinger said. “This was very convenient for me. It’s simple, and the staff was very helpful.”

Peck said she “didn’t want to skip voting. It was a good process and very organized. I had the time to do it today.”

She had planned to vote last week.

But the day before early voting was to start last Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that lower federal courts had overstepped their authority by adding a week of in-person early voting and additional Sundays in Ohio.

Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras — surrounded by elected officials, party candidates on the ballot, and Democratic loyalists — said at a Tuesday press conference that Republicans are trying to suppress the votes of Democrats, who typically vote early more than Republicans.

Read more on the controversy in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.