‘It’s been extremely stressful:’ Summit County scrambling amid redistricting chaos

With less than three weeks until the May 3 primary, the Summit County Board of Elections is scrambling to keep up with near-constant changes in redistricting after a fourth set of maps was rejected Thursday afternoon.

The court has already rejected four sets of Republican-drawn maps, which would give long-awaited clarity to what candidates are running in which district and whom they’re serving.

Early voting in Summit County is already underway with Ohioans casting ballots in other elections including U.S. Senate, congressional, gubernatorial and local races. But as the redistricting confusion continues, candidates for state House and Senate are missing from the ballot.

Local election officials can offer no clarity to voters and candidates before the murky redistricting process is resolved.

The uncertainty places a major burden on Summit and other county boards of elections, which will likely have to run a second primary later this summer at a cost that surpasses half a million dollars.

But the effects go beyond just cost, as election officials feel the pressure of overtime hours, uncertainty and potential staffing problems.

A second Ohio primary could cost an additional $600,000

It cost the county $578,000 when it last ran a primary election in May 2021, not including fixed board of elections costs.

That primary did not include the entirety of Summit County, so Board Chair Bill Rich estimates the upcoming election will cost closer to $600,000.

And if state House and Senate races aren’t included on that ballot, those costs will double as they have to replicate the entire process later this summer. 

“We’d have to print another set of absentee ballots, staff for early voting, bring in all the equipment on Election Day at voting locations with precinct officials, tabulate the votes, process the absentee ballots, possibly calculate a recount, do the post-election audit,” said Rich.  “All that costs a significant amount of money. These are things we would only have to do once if it weren’t for a special election.”

Other states, such as Maryland and North Carolina, have already pushed back primary dates because of redistricting delays. Less than three weeks out from the May 3 primary election date, it is “impossible” that Ohio general assembly races will appear on the ballot as early voting has already begun, according to both the board’s Deputy Director Pete Zeigler and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

“Right now, it’s a waiting game,” Zeigler said. “And if there’s a second primary, there’s a lot of things that would need to happen that wouldn’t be an easy lift.”

Overtime hours, extra tasks mount as Ohio legislative maps change

The lengthy process has forced many board employees into overtime. As maps change, they must keep up by reprogramming ballots and updating registration records to ensure constituents are voting in the proper district.

Local boards of elections take their directives on how to proceed from LaRose. Rich said out of the four maps, they have only had to program the third set.

“Whatever happens, we have to deal with it and actually administer the election whenever it’s going to be,” Rich said. “Since these things are not within our control, we just have to hope the decisions are made appropriately by the legislature and secretary of state.”

According to Board of Elections data, there has not been a significant uptick in overtime hours as compared to the 2018 midterm primary, but Rich said those numbers are not necessarily indicative of the added labor time. The bulk of the redistricting tasks fall upon members of the board’s IT department, who were transitioned to full-time, salaried staff, so their hours were not calculated as part of that data.

Even still, Rich said “a lot” of employees are working incredibly hard under stressful circumstances.

Stress builds as timing of second Ohio primary uncertain

There are about 80 people currently working at the Summit County Board of Elections, 34 of whom are full-time staff members. The number of seasonal workers, who are described as “part-time” but frequently work close to or beyond full-time hours during election season, fluctuates based on the time of the year and what election is being run.

The changing maps are a major source of confusion and concern for those employees: candidates don’t know where they’re running and voters don’t know who they’re voting for. But neither do board staff.

“We’re dealing with voters who are legitimately confused by what’s going on,” Zeigler said. “We have to explain that we can’t really explain what’s going on. It takes a toll on people here that I know the entire staff is feeling.”

For those employees, the uncertainty of a second election is leaving major question marks for not only their jobs, but their personal lives.

“The stress is really the most difficult part of this. People want to make plans for moving forward; heaven forbid someone wants to take a summer vacation,” Zeigler said. “At this point, we know we’re going to have a second election. We just don’t know when it is. If they’re trying to schedule medical appointments or anything, it’s a real challenge.”

And a second primary later this summer would leave little “breathing time” for employees as the November general election nears, Rich said.

“A lot of people are working overtime,” he said. “It's a lot to ask of people to continue working very long hours essentially from February through December.”

Election officials fear long-term effects on staffing

Rich, who also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, noted a statewide trend of increasing difficulties to secure election employees. With mounting stressors, both he and Zeigler expressed concern about the job becoming “unattractive” to prospective employees.

“We have great people here, and we really don’t want to lose them,” Zeigler said. “It’s extremely concerning when we see what’s happening nationwide.”

Zeigler said the problem is bigger than redistricting. A 2021 survey of election officials found that one in three said they feel unsafe because of their job, and one in five listed threats to their lives as a job-related concern.

Those threats, as well as widespread and baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election and added media attention, makes their jobs more difficult and stressful, Zeigler said.

So far, Summit County has not lost any full-time employees this year. Rich is hopeful it remains that way as questions are hopefully answered soon.

“We have a really dedicated staff and they work very hard under difficult and stressful situations to get the job done,” Rich said. “If it weren’t for the kind of dedication and hard work and skill and knowledge our staff has, we’d be in a very different situation.”

Published in the Akron Beacon Journal on April 15, 2022.

What's missing from Akron's 2022 budget? Task force says racial equity priorities left out

Key recommendations from a recently released Racial Equity and Social Justice Taskforce report were notably missing from Akron's upcoming 2022 operational budget, sparking concern from task force members about the city's commitment to address racism as a public health crisis. 

“I know it’s long-haul work, but you have to start making moves now,” said Robert DeJournett, who served on the task force and works as the vice president of opportunity and inclusion at the Greater Akron Chamber. “Our community needs to feel like the city is taking this really seriously.”

The report, released this month by a task force of 29 community members convened by the city, outlined a five-year strategic plan to promote equity and opportunity for Akron’s communities of color and other marginalized groups. City officials say they have already begun to enact some of the task force's early recommendations, but the group issued its final report — including requests that would involve significant spending — just prior to the 2022 budget presentation.

After more than a year of research and community engagement, the group made recommendations with both short- and long-term goals, beginning with changes it said should be implemented this year.

"We purposefully staggered the recommendations year over year," said Curtis Minter, co-chair of the task force's executive committee. "Our hope is those would be taken seriously and be integrated into the operating budget for this fiscal year. Our work by no means is finished; we have the capacity to execute, but not without accountability."

One of the top priorities outlined in the report was the creation of an office of equity led by a full-time position within the mayor’s Cabinet. The recommendation had been made by two separate subcommittees — communications and workforce development — in a previous quarterly report.

“Establishing an office of equity was our subcommittee’s No. 1 recommendation,” said Carla Davis, the communication subcommittee’s co-chair. “We recognized early on that there needed to be someone to drive these initiatives the task force is proposing.”

But the 2022 operational budget proposal, which was presented over four consecutive days last week to Akron City Council, excluded that and other notable recommendations that task force members were hoping would be implemented this year.

“If there is no one shepherding the process and making sure it stays on the forefront, my concern is these recommendations will be pushed to the back burner,” Davis said. 

City says it hasn’t had time to assess proposals

At Tuesday’s budget hearing, Ward 8 Councilman Shammas Malik pressed city officials about the exclusion of recommendations outlined by the task force in the budget hearings.

In particular, Malik questioned the lack of budgeting for a proposed deputy mayor for racial equity and social justice, as well as a support staff for that position. 

Gert Wilms, Mayor Dan Horrigan's chief of staff, said the city is “not in the position to have any kind of movement on that at this time” because of the recent release date of the report, which was submitted earlier this month. The city has not yet submitted its response to the report, which will outline which policy recommendations it plans to undertake immediately in the first year and which will be addressed at a later date.

“We will definitely take a look at that, make some determinations on what we can implement, what we cannot implement, what can happen this year, what we need to put off, but it’s just too premature based on how quick we got that report to make any kind of promise or dedication at this point,” Wilms said at the hearing.

Malik pointed out that some of those recommendations, such as the Cabinet position, were presented months before the final report was released. He said even if all the details aren’t fully ironed out, it’s important to carve out spending dollars and the number of budgeted positions.

“I really think we should have a sense of urgency around this and make sure that we don’t drop the baton in terms of implementing this,” Malik said. “That role and the support staff is going to be absolutely critical to implementing the dozens of recommendations.”

Wilms said the city already has staff and programs addressing equity and inclusion; it's just a matter of “marrying that up” with the recommendations, renaming positions and realigning goals.

“I appreciate that there is a lot of work that’s ongoing, but … one thing that really came strongly out of those committees was someone who should be only focusing on that so we can move these forward,” Malik responded.

Wilms told the Beacon Journal that with the promotion of Tamiyka Rose to deputy chief of staff, she will be responsible for overseeing many of the recommendations. Rose has worked closely with the task force throughout the process.

Additionally, Wilms said, the city has already implemented a "lot of things" in the report, including the recent hire of a youth and community opportunity director. Horrigan has made an offer to a policy adviser to assist with these issues as well, Wilms said.

Several recommendations in the report do not require the use of city funds and may still be implemented this year once officials have had time to assess them, said a spokesperson for the city.

Some police reform recommendations missing

Malik also pressed the mayor’s office about the creation of a deputy police auditor role, which was recommended last January.

Per a previous recommendation, City Council voted to transition the police auditor position from part time to full time in March 2021 and hire an assistant, but the deputy auditor role was missing from the budget.

Wilms said that discussion will happen in a “future internal meeting yet to take place.”

“This is a repeated recommendation; one of the most frequent recommendations made by the criminal justice subcommittee," Malik said. “I think it’s an important way of bolstering our commitment to building trust between police and community and making sure we have adequate capacity in our police oversight mechanisms.”

Additionally, Malik questioned the police department over a recommendation that all uniformed officers wear body cameras starting in 2022. Though patrol officers are required to wear cameras, the criminal justice subcommittee of the task force recommended that officers deployed as SWAT and secondary employment, such as bar security, be required to wear them as well.

Akron Police Department Capt. Agostino Micozzi said although the department “probably has a few spares,” they do not have “enough for all of that.” He said they are working on it and have been reviewing whether they will require bodycams for officers on SWAT.

“There’s a lot of considerations that are weighty on cost,” Micozzi said at the hearing.

‘We can’t afford another opportunity to do something pass us by’

Several task force members told the Beacon Journal they are concerned that the city is not immediately budgeting for these first-year recommendations. 

“None of the recommendations were impossible to implement,” said Torey Tolson, who co-chaired the workforce development committee. “They all were coming from a practical standpoint — and things that we thought could be implemented fairly quickly if not in a year's time.”

Tolson said she is worried the hard work the task force put in over the past year will not come to fruition because the city “doesn’t want to face the hard conversations.”

“In order to see real change, you have to identify what the problems are and have the guts to tackle them,” she said. “Not putting a position in like (the deputy mayor for racial equity and social justice) that many of us identified is needed is leaving the city at a disadvantage of making true change. We can’t afford another opportunity to do something pass us by.”

Others are still hopeful for the inclusion of the deputy mayor role and others — if not this year, then in the 2023 fiscal year. 

“I’d like to think that if it doesn’t happen now, it’s not a ‘no,’ it’s a ‘not yet,’” said Jose Delgado, co-chair of the communications subcommittee. “Hopefully the ‘not yet’ isn’t too far off, because the results will take time. And, hopefully, the administration will pass the baton to the next administration to continue the work.”

DeJournett, who served on both the communications and workforce development committees, said he was grateful the city implemented certain changes as quarterly reports came out, particular ones recommended by the criminal justice subcommittee. He said he is hopeful Akron will “keep that momentum going.”

“You don’t just do one or two things and think you’re done,” he said. “We have to really look at outcomes. It’s a journey, not a one-time thing — take a recommendation, implement it and that’s it. There’s way more to it than that. You have to be deliberate and intentional when you want to move the needle on inclusion.”

Originally published in the Akron Beacon Journal on March 20, 2022.

Biden pledges $1 billion for Great Lakes cleanup during visit to Northeast Ohio

President Joe Biden announced Thursday an unprecedented investment in restoring and cleaning up the Great Lakes as part of his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Speaking at The Shipyards, an historic industrial building that has been redeveloped as an event venue in Lorain, Biden touted the newly unveiled spending plan, which will funnel $1 billion into accelerating the cleanup of the Great Lakes in sites across six states.

"We're investing like never, ever in history," Biden said. "It's going to allow the most significant restoration of the Great Lakes in the history of the Great Lakes."

Biden was joined by Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley and Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, who has been a longtime advocate for the Great Lakes. Kaptur, who has served in Congress since 1983, said Biden has done more for the region than any other president in her tenure. She recalled a previous visit when then-Vice President Biden pledged to accelerate efforts to clean up the Black River — once derided as the "river of tumors" — which flows through Lorain into Lake Erie.

"Today, as millions of tons of slag and pollutants have been removed, native fish have begun to return and be certified as safe to eat," Kaptur said. "Thank you, President Biden, for never forgetting us."

Biden was introduced by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, who discussed how the "unwillingness to dedicate necessary resources" to clean up the lakes decimated waterfront communities, many of them underserved and include or are adjacent to communities of color where poverty levels are well above average.

"These magnificent waters are essential to the region's way of life and to the American economy, but they require endless care, especially in the face of emerging challenges like PFAS pollution and climate change," Regan said.

The Great Lakes provide drinking water for about 40 million people and support 1.3 million jobs. Biden said previous commitments from U.S. and Canadian governments to clean up the lakes had languished due to multiple factors including insufficient funding and barriers such as the acceleration of climate change.

"For decades, there was a lot of talk a lot of plans but very little progress," he said. "It was slow. That changes today."

The bulk of the funding will focus on continued restoration work in 25 designated “areas of concern,” including the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio. The area of concern includes the lower 46.5 miles of the river, starting at the Gorge Dam pool along the Akron-Cuyahoga Falls boundary and ending at Lake Erie.

Biden said a study found that every dollar that is spent on Great Lakes restoration will translate to between $3 and $4 in economic activity. That could mean the regions supported by the Great Lakes could experience a $3 to $4 billion economic boom if that estimate is accurate. The study and who conducted it was not specified.

The Great Lakes cleanup falls in line with other water infrastructure improvements nationwide and regionally. Ohio has the second highest number of lead service pipes in the country, totaling about 650,000.

Under the infrastructure law, Biden promises 100% of lead pipes will be eradicated and replaced. EPA administrator Regan said water infrastructure funding to Ohio this year alone will total $242 million.

Akron city officials are eager to receive those funds as they look toward replacing aging water mains throughout the city. Currently, a quarter of Akron's pipes are over a century old. It costs about $1 million to replace one mile of the city's 1,200 miles of pipes and the yearly budget to do so hovers around $2 million. 

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"Every American and every child should be able to turn on a faucet and know they water they’re drinking is clean and safe," Biden said.

Akron has also been working to replace its remaining lead service lines. Though public service officials say they are ahead of most other Midwest cities, the city still has about 3,000 remaining lead lines. With infrastructure funding, public service director Chris Ludle told the Beacon Journal earlier this month he is hopeful the city will be able to eradicate the rest.

Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure law passed in November 2021 with the support of Democrats and Republicans, solidifying the president's economic spending agenda. In addition to water infrastructure, Ohio will see investments and repairs to about 1,300 bridges and 5,000 miles of highway in poor condition.

Biden concluded his remarks with a quote from writer Toni Morrison, a Lorain native.

"'We got more yesterdays than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow,'" he said. "Places like Lorain have a lot of yesterdays. Now, they're going to have some brighter tomorrows."

Published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Feb. 17, 2022.

How old are Akron’s water pipes? City works to replace remnants that exceed century of use

Across the city of Akron, a water pipe averaging $3,000 to fix breaks roughly every 26 hours. Some days, 10 pipes burst at once.

But public service officials say the breakages are nothing to be alarmed about and no reason to raise water rates as miles of aging pipes, some dating almost as far back as the Civil War, continue to carry water.

Wide-impact ruptures, however, such as the Jan. 22 water main break that buckled a street and disrupted gas service near Akron Children’s Hospital, nonetheless stir worries about the system's overall stability and renew residents' concerns about its oldest and potentially weakest components.

Though the city’s public service department worked quickly to repair the break, Dominion Energy says a gas line was downed from the breakage, leaving some customers without gas or heat for days.

That break, while far more disruptive than most in the city, was one of about 300 water main issues that happen annually. Despite aging water infrastructure and pipes, 25% of which are older than 100, the city says such breakages are manageable and won't affect customer rates as it looks ahead to major funding sources and investments expected to improve the system.

City's infrastructure issues common across Midwest 

Beneath Akron and surrounding service areas runs 1,200 miles of water mains. In the oldest parts of the city, some remaining water lines date back to 1881. 

About a quarter of all water mains are more than 100 years old, according to Public Service Director Chris Ludle. 

Akron’s aging infrastructure problem is hardly unique to the city. Across the Midwest, particularly in cities similar to Akron that experienced a large industrial boom in the early- to mid-1900s, leaders and planners must reconcile with aging infrastructure and housing stock that are surpassing a century of use.

The city has been working for years to maintain and replace aging water mains that are particularly problematic, but the departments face budget constraints.

Replacing a single mile of water mains costs $1 million, including excavation, material cost, labor and repairing or installing the road back to its original state or better. 

The city’s capital budget allots about $2 million each year for the water main replacement program. That means replacing only two of the 1,200 miles would consume the entire year’s allotment.

Only so much can be chipped away at a time, and the city must prioritize what needs to be replaced.

Those decisions aren’t necessarily based on the age of the pipes, but instead, the break history. The city has over a century of records and a digitized system that keeps information of a main’s age, material type, break history and more. When the department receives its budget, it begins to look at where the largest problem areas are based on an annual condition report. 

“There’s a standard that has to be met,” Ludle said. “We’ve had some pipe that’s only 50 years old, but for some reason it’s had quite a few water main breaks on it. We would prioritize that over maybe an older pipe that hasn’t had issues.”

In 2021, there were 334 water main breaks that cost the city about $1 million in emergency repairs. Winter worsens the issue: as temperatures fluctuate quickly, the ground shifts, and the pipes, only about 5 feet underground, are particularly sensitive to that change.

In the summer, the city can go several days or even weeks without water main breaks.  Winter, however, brings multiple breaks a day, said Jeff Bronowski, the city’s water supply bureau manager. Last Monday, for example, the city dealt with 10 water main break reports, though no customers were without water. 

In the case of the break near Akron Children’s Hospital, which was repaired that same day for about $6,500, the break was “unexpected,” as it had no prior issues in its 94 years of service.

“When you look at that piece of pipe, at the thickness, it looked like it was in good condition,” Ludle said. “What caused it to pop off like that? We don’t know.”

Ludle said with main breaks, public service tends to see more cracks than pieces popping off, which are easier to repair.

Building water main replacements into other projects

In the last 60 years, Ludle said the city has upgraded about 50% of its pipes, with a major focus on eradicating lead from the system.

Ludle said Mayor Dan Horrigan ramped up lead removal services that had been active since the 1960s after he took office in 2016. Now, only 3,000 of the city’s 85,000 service accounts are served by a lead line. The public service department has presented a proposal to City Council that would allow the city to pay a contractor to remove an additional 150 lead services.

As for water mains, there simply isn’t sufficient funding to complete everything, Ludle and Bronowski said. But just because pipes aren’t being replaced does not mean they are not being maintained — throughout the years, public service will work to reline the interior of the pipes and make other upgrades to increase the main’s lifespan.

To consolidate construction time and costs, a primary strategy is baking those repairs and replacements into other projects. Various city departments work throughout the year to align their schedules. For example, if a street is scheduled for resurfacing, public service may look at water lines in need of repairs or replacements, as well as invite private utility companies to determine if they need to make any upgrades while the street is cracked open.

“If we’re going to open up a street, we’re going to try to look at every piece of infrastructure,” Ludle said. “We may not be back in there for another 25 or 30 years.”

Total overhaul projects, such as the $45 million Main Street project, are rare. The multi-phase project, which was funded largely by federal grants, has spanned years. The project involved removing, replacing and updating all old infrastructure, including 1,400 feet of water mains from 1881, beneath the road. In addition, the city built wider sidewalks, a single-lane roundabout at Mill Street, bike lanes and more.

Despite the major modernization project, downtown still maintains some of the oldest infrastructure in the city. Still, residents shouldn’t expect what happened near Akron Children’s to be the norm, Ludle said. 

Gradual approach limits need to raise rates

With the cost of $1 million per mile, 1,200 miles of pipe, and a yearly budget hovering around $2 million, Akron officials face an arduous task of modernizing and updating water mains for longevity. Ludle said the ductile iron or cast-iron lined pipes the city uses has a life expectancy of over 100 years, but as of now, Bronowski said the city is not facing a “major emergency.”

“Thus far, it has not been a chronic issue for us,” Bronowski said. “Nobody really knows the life expectancy of a lot of the pipes that have been in the ground. We’re in uncharted waters in a sense with regards to age, but when we have an opportunity to remove something where that age has gotten so high, we do.”

The 2022 water main replacement program is budgeted for $1.9 million in the upcoming capital budget, which has not yet been approved by Akron City Council. Much of that, however, is not straight funding, but rather borrowing capacity for taking out 20- to 30-year loans, Bronowski said. 

Otherwise, the only option to put more money into water is to raise rates, Bronowski said, which the city does not want to do. Akron customers are already burdened with one of the highest sewer rates statewide due to the city’s court ordered agreement with the U.S. and Ohio Environmental Protection Agencies in 2014, which mandated several large infrastructure projects totaling more than $1 billion to upgrade its main sewer system to prevent any sewage from reaching waterways.

To balance that, Bronowski said, the city offers a lower water rate so residents aren’t overwhelmed by their combined monthly sewer, water and refuse bills. The billed cost of sewer is nearly four times larger than the cost of water.

“It’s really made it tough,” Bronowski said. “Only about 20% of that bill is going to water. I see the frustration all the time of ‘Oh, water main break, but I pay so much.” You do pay a lot, and I sympathize greatly. Unfortunately, that money doesn’t go to any drinking water services whatsoever. It goes to the massive wastewater projects out there.”

Federal funds expected to give overhaul program a boost next year

A large injection to the budget in the near future, however, will allow major water infrastructure updates without burdening customers with the bill.

The 2023 annual water main replacement is budgeted for $10 million — more than five times the typical amount. Unlike previous years, those dollars are coming from the $145 million in federal funds Akron received as designated by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

“Where a lot of communities are struggling is the investment in aging infrastructure,” Bronowski said. “We have 120-year-old infrastructure that is still in the ground and relied upon each and every day is now reaching its service life. That's a real concern for Akron and a lot of other communities.”

Bronowski said his department is “desperately hoping” for even more funds for a major water investment as the city prepares to receive a large sum from President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill.

“With the money that’s coming, we will be able to eradicate all lead in our system, “ Ludle said. “To have a Midwestern city that’s able to say that is huge. We’re far ahead of a lot of other cities.”

It is unclear how much the city will receive from the infrastructure plan, but officials expect it will not only be enough to completely remove the remaining lead services, but also lend aid to replacing deteriorating water mains and other major water repairs, such as plant upgrades and more.

“When you ask about the infrastructure bill and a lot of the funding that appears like it’s coming very soon, the priority will be and has to be the water systems across America,” he said.

Published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Feb. 7, 2022.

One year after Capitol riots, how have politics in Summit County changed?

On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of Donald Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt Congress from counting the electoral votes to formalize Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over the Republican incumbent.

Trump supporters scaled the building’s walls and fences, swarmed the hallways, vandalized offices and federal property and threatened violence toward congressional members. In the hours that followed, the Capitol was locked down, lawmakers were evacuated, five people died and many — including 140 police officers — were injured.

A year later in Akron, more than 350 miles away from the nation’s capital,  the turmoil continues to reverberate in local and state politics. Though no one in the county was among the more than 720 people charged with crimes, some local residents attended the protest led by President Trump that later devolved into riots.

“Just to see an insurrection right before your very eyes was absolutely surreal, but also that continuation of trying to deal with the ramifications of the behavior of that day,” said US. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, who was working in Washington when the riots broke out.

With a midterm election year underway, local officials will be watching to see how the Capitol riots shape voters' mindsets in the first nationwide balloting since the integrity of the process was violently challenged.

Local officials consider voter confidence in Summit County

The riots and preceding protests were rooted in the unfounded belief that the presidential election was stolen from Trump. In the months following the general election where Biden was named the president-elect, Trump riled up his voter base with tweets and rallies alleging corruption and voter fraud. Those claims have been proved baseless by election officials and recount efforts in several states.

“That large-scale effort of questioning and undermining the democratic process is cause for concern,” said Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan. “It questions every election. If somebody says, ‘Hey the presidential election was this way,’ what’s to say that the school board and the county commissioner’s race and city council races weren’t all irregularities? I’ve always trusted that system. To see somebody undermine and question it for months and continue to this day, that’s the scary part.”

In Summit County, however, Board of Elections voting officials in both parties say they haven’t experienced the voter distrust they were expecting in 2021's local elections.

“There was some anticipation of problems that generally didn’t materialize,” said William Rich, the chair of the Summit County Board of Elections. “I guess I would say there was more tension than usual, but we didn’t see here in Summit County the kind of reaction that we’ve all been seeing around the country.”

Rich, one of the two Democrats on the four-person board, said he expects things “would’ve been different” if Biden had won in Ohio, but Trump took 53.3% of the vote compared to Biden’s 45.3%.

Bryan Williams, who also serves on the Board of Elections and is the chairman of the county’s Republican Party, agrees that he has not seen any incidents of voter distrust in the county, though he concurs with Trump’s claims that Biden stole the election. He attributes voter confidence in Ohio to Republican efforts in the Statehouse to block what he believes hindered a fair election by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

“I don’t think we are scarred by Jan. 6, and I don’t think we have a heightened sense of distrust," said Williams, who has been heavily critical of LaRose — a fellow Republican — and adjustments that were sought to assure ballot access to voters statewide in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Williams took aim at LaRose efforts including a proposition that the state pay for return postage on absentee ballots or send absentee ballot request forms to all registered voters. LaRose's office said Williams' criticism is baseless.

"Voter confidence in Ohio is high because in 2020, under Secretary LaRose’s leadership, Ohio ran the most successful and secure election in Ohio history," said Rob Nichols, a spokesperson for LaRose. He cited metrics such as the highest voter turnout ever in the state.

John Chapman, an Akron-based attorney who ran as a Republican candidate for county executive in 2020 and Stow clerk of courts in 2021, said he has seen no evidence of a rigged election process in Ohio or otherwise, but said there was a failed opportunity to dissuade voter distrust on a federal level when judges dismissed more than 50 lawsuits from Trump and allies challenging the election’s outcome. 

“I think the biggest mistake that was made with regards to whether or not the election was stolen was the fact that they didn’t let it work through the courts and televise it to let people see what’s true and not true,” Chapman said. “It wasn’t just a fringe group; there were millions of people who believed it, so I think that warranted a public analysis and scrutiny in a way that could’ve restored faith. It solidified a large number of people’s positions … What did they think was going to happen?”

A growing partisan divide

The deep divides that were already forming between and within each party for years came to an explosive head on Jan. 6, said John Green, the emeritus director of the Bliss Institute at the University of Akron.

“Jan. 6 just exacerbated those already existing divisions because you had this enormously embarrassing and very public event,” Green said. “Jan. 6 was widely condemned by Democrats as well as Republicans as an awful thing, but given our existing division, it didn’t bring us together. Historically, it’s events like Jan. 6 that tend to crystallize people’s disagreements.”

State Rep. Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat who last month announced she is stepping down from her role as Ohio House minority leader after three years in that post, said she fears the two parties in the Statehouse will face increasing frustrations when it comes to collaboration as that divide widens.

“We hear all the time that [constituents] want elected officials to work with one another and find common ground, but I’ve found that the people who cling to this narrative are not willing to even hear what anyone with an opposing view is saying,” Sykes said. “That makes our country stagnant, it’s what’s making our Statehouse dysfunctional, and it’s not necessary.”  

Akron’s Horrigan, a Democrat, said when it comes to local governing, all partisanship should stop as soon as an election is over.

“I have a duty to advocate for Akron and its best interests,” he said. “I have to work with whoever is elected because that’s what our community needs. Not everybody thinks that way, and that’s a problem because they don't put politics aside. There's no partisan way to plow a street or fill a pothole."

Primary will weigh GOP voters' Trump loyalty

Green said infighting that's been happening in both parties for years is at play in 2022 as well, particularly when it comes to the actions and responsibilities of Trump in the riots.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Rocky River, whose 16th District spans parts of Summit and Medina counties, was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the riots, calling him a “cancer for the country.” Gonzalez announced in September that he will not seek a third two-year term. Congressional hopefuls campaigning to fill his seat include former Trump aide Max Miller, who brands himself as being “Trump-approved.”

In a competitive Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat for which Rob Portman is declining to seek reelection, as well as upcoming congressional and gubernatorial races, many other candidates are aligning themselves with Trump as well — using his likeness, policies and rhetoric to brand themselves similarly. That could work in a state where the former president was so popular, political scientist Green said, if the candidate finds broader appeal in the general election.

“A candidate that runs strictly on Trump will face a real difficult general election because there’s a lot of Republicans and Democrats who have mixed emotions about Trump,” he said. “I can imagine it being successful if they have a broader agenda that gets the benefit of Trump's support but doesn’t turn off too many people. There has to be appeal beyond Trump, otherwise it’s dangerous to fall back and be trapped with being too closely connected with a popular but controversial figure.”

Ryan said the divisiveness of Trump has forced some Ohio Republicans to jump ship to support his campaign for Senate.

“We’ve got a significant number of well-established Republican leaders and activists that are helping in my campaign, not because they agree with me on every issue, but because they think there are some fundamental issues here around the necessity of having functioning elections, of understanding the legitimacy of these elections even if you lose them, making sure issues around voting are protected,” Ryan said. “Those are beyond your position on taxes or education or anything else.”

Though voter confidence is certainly at play in upcoming elections, Green said he doesn’t foresee that as a long-term issue if the next election cycle runs smoothly without candidates stoking unfounded accusations about the process.

“When we’re not having an election in the midst of a pandemic, I think things will come back to normal,” he said. “I really believe they’re being addressed and we’ll get back to higher levels of confidence in the future if everyone behaves themselves.”

As local officials reflect on Jan. 6 and look ahead to the future, many, both Republican and Democrat, agree that the riots and events will be remembered as a dark day in the country.

“It was definitely more than a wake-up call,” Horrigan said. “We need to make sure we are responsive to people’s needs. How can we make sure people feel like they’re listened to? I think that’s more on the ground than anywhere else.”

Published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Jan 5, 2022.