Date of Meeting: 11/21/2022

Format: In-person

Meeting Summary:

The minutes of the November 4, 2022 and November 8, 2022 meetings were approved.

The Board reviewed the ballots from the November 8, 2022 General Election prior to the official certification of the election, which will be held on November 23rd.

Absentee ballots: 19,118 absentee ballots were received by the due date and 85 were postmarked prior to the election and received within the specified time for a total of 19,203 acceptable ballots. There were 105 ballots that were uncountable for a variety of reasons such as no signature, changed names or addresses, postmarked too late, or missing a stub. 976 ballots additional absentee ballots were requested but never returned to the Board of Elections.

Provisional ballots: 1,253 provisional ballots were submitted by voters and determined countable by BOE staff members. Eighteen (18) provisional ballots were presented to the Board members for review. Four (4) were not accepted for counting and fourteen (14) were accepted. In the case of three (3) non-accepted ballots, the voters voted a provisional ballot on election day but had previously submitted an absentee ballot. These voters, who voted twice, will be referred to the prosecutor. The other non-accepted ballot was submitted by a voter who used the address of a UPS store where P.O. boxes are located; use of such addresses is prohibited by Ohio Secretary of State directives. Fourteen (14) provisional ballots, all submitted by registered voters, were accepted for counting after review. Eleven (11) made mistakes on the provisional application form (e.g. transposition errors in addresses, names, birth dates, etc.) but otherwise provided correct information on the application. Three (3) voters were issued the wrong ballot and the Board approved remaking the ballot for the correct precinct. When these 14 ballots deemed countable were added to the 1,253 previously determined countable ballots, a total of 1,267 countable provisional ballots were received. 104 ballots were not countable (100 previously determined by BOE Staff members to be uncountable because the voter was not registered or there were ID issues plus the 4 determined uncountable by the Board members.)

Logic and accuracy testing of the machines was performed prior to the official certification and found to be in order.

The staff informed the board that there was one referral (Neighbors for Responsible Retail) to the Ohio Elections Board for non-submission of a required campaign report.

Which members of the board/council were present: Denise Smith, Chair; Members Randi Clites, Doria Daniels, and Amanda Suffecool; Director Faith Lyons; Deputy Director Terrie Nielsen

 Was there a public notice of the meeting that included the time and place of meeting: Yes

Was an agenda of the meeting or handouts available to visitors: Yes

Are minutes from previous meetings posted/available: Yes

Name of Observer: Jane Preston Rose