When Ohioans go to vote in person on Election Day, they go to their local precinct polling stations. But in some states, voters go to larger centers that are designated by the counties.
That idea was recently floated at a meeting of Ohio elections officials. Those centers are not likely to be a reality in the near future. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles reports.
Ohio’s elections officials have long said they want to reduce the number of provisional ballots cast in Ohio elections. Many times those are cast because voters go to the wrong precinct. But Aaron Ockerman with the Ohio Association of Election Officials says one way to eliminate that problem is by going to large voting centers instead of neighborhood precincts.
Ockerman “Right church, wrong pew, wrong church, wrong pew. Blah Blah Blah. All of that stuff is gone. Completely. As a voter, you can show up anywhere in your county and vote. Period. What does that do for provisional balloting in Ohio? We want to cut provisional balloting? That’s the way you do it.”
Ockerman says areas of the country that are using voting centers report increased voter turnout and decreased costs for administering elections. But the centers are controversial. The Ohio Democratic Party has already passed a resolution against regional voting centers, citing concerns over transportation availabilities as a main obstacle for low income voters. And Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted says he has his questions about voting centers too.
Husted “Do the current voting machines allow for this to happen? The answer to that is in some counties, yes, in other counties, no. What will be the impact of eliminating local precincts? How much will it cost to pay for all of the new voting machines and new printers you would need because if you are going to have anybody from the county coming to any vote center then you would have to do ballot on demand, which means you would have to have lots of printers to print different ballots for people based on where they live. There are just a ton of unanswered questions in this proposal.”
Husted says there would need to be a lot of money available to make voting centers work. And he says county commissioners would need to be part of the discussion since they are in charge of making some of the decisions about money for local elections. Peg Rosenfield with the Ohio League of Women Voters also has a lot of questions about these voting centers.
Rosenfield “Whether you can provide parking and access and big places…. I mean what are you going to do with maybe, 4,000 voters in one place? All in one day? I mean there are a lot of problems that need to be thought out and addressed and planned for very carefully.”
Rosenfield says this isn’t the first time voting centers have been considered.
Rosenfield “This is not a brand new idea. It’s been floating around since, I don’t know, the 1980’s or 90’s. And it seems to work for some people in certain places and not work so well for others. It’s the classic…the devil is in the details.”
There isn’t a detailed plan right now. None of Ohio’s lawmakers have proposed a bill that would allow this change. It’s just an idea at this point…..an idea Ockerman thinks Ohioans should be giving careful consideration.
