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.