Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will decide whether Franklin County voters cast ballots on weekends before the November election. During a meeting Thursday members of the Board of Elections disagreed on weekend balloting.
Members of the Franklin County Board of Elections voted to extend early balloting on weekdays until 7 p.m. before the November 4th election. But board members could not reach agreement on whether to permit balloting on Saturdays and Sundays. The two Democratic members voted in favor of balloting 7 days a week beginning September 30th. Republicans countered with a proposal that would permit voting on the two Saturdays before the election. Board director Michael Stinziano says it's now up to Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to break the tie.
"The board tied on two proposals for Saturday hours and Sunday hours," Stinziano said. "If the Secretary weighs in and breaks the tie we could see additional hours on Saturday and additional hours on Sunday."
Absentee voters will cast their ballots at a new location this year - the Veterans Memorial Building. Deputy elections director Matt Damschroder.
"In the past, in-person voting has been at the Board Of Elections office on East Broad Street but in the spring of this year with the primary election we were overwhelmed in terms of the physical ability for this facility to handle the capacity of the number of voters who were coming to vote in person so by moving it to Vets we have more parking accessibility, more space to queue inside and a larger facility to vote in."
September 30th is the first day a person can vote in person at the Vets Memorial, and it's the first day that the Board of Elections can mail ballots to people who've requested them. Applications for voting by mail will be sent to every registered voter in the county in early September.