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Secretary of State orders Mahoning board to adopt new elections policies
By Justin Wier
YOUNGSTOWN
Secretary of State Jon Husted sent a letter Friday to the Mahoning County Board of Elections asking the board to address shortcomings in the handling of ballots and communication among staff, board members, media and the public.
After a mistake led to the double counting of more than 6,000 early-vote ballots on election night in November, Husted ordered the board to conduct a formal internal review of what went wrong.
The board sent Husted a draft report that he reviewed before writing Friday’s letter.
Husted wrote that the board’s report identified “a breakdown in communication on several fronts,” noting that staff never communicated the accidental double-count to board members, media or the public. He asks the board to designate a staff person responsible for communicating necessary updates to board members and a staff person responsible for updating each method of communication the board uses.
He also said the board might consider streamlining the number of methods it manages for reporting elections. Those include paper copies distributed at the board office, a large screen in the hallway of the board office, the board’s website, the board’s mobile app and the results uploaded to the Secretary of State’s county submission system for election night reporting.
The letter asks the board to adopt policies and submit a final report to Husted’s office by Jan. 31.
Board Chairman Mark Munroe, who heads the county’s Republican Party, said he expects the board to require staff to develop the policies at its Jan. 2 meeting and to formally adopt the policies at another meeting by the end of January.
“The direction from Columbus was pretty clear,” Munroe said. “The secretary of state provided some very helpful direction.”
David Betras, a board member and chairman of the county’s Democratic Party, said some of the changes Husted recommends have already been made. Other changes won’t be done until the next election, he added.
Husted is doing his job and doing it well, Betras said.
In order to improve the handling of ballots, Husted provides a list of criteria the board’s policy must incorporate:
The names of designated staff responsible for scanning ballots and tabulating results and the names of individuals authorized to be in the room where ballots are scanned, processed or tabulated.
The method by which ballots are separated and tabulated by type to ensure traditional, absentee and provisional ballots are reported accurately.
On-site training for the proper method of tabulating results before the next election involving all staff involved in the tabulation process.
A checklist that provides detailed steps to properly and accurately process, scan and tabulate ballots and what steps are taken to analyze unofficial results before release.
Husted ordered the board to discuss and adopt the policies in an open meeting before submitting a final report to his office.