Early voting to begin today
By Kevin Risner, krisner@advertiser-tribune.comArticle Photos
Early voting is expected to get under way in Seneca County this afternoon, according to Board of Elections Director Janet Leahy.
Leahy and Deputy Director Jane Sheeley worked with Jose Trejo of TRIAD Governmental Systems Inc. this week to program Automark voting machines and vote tabulation machines in preparation for voting. The machines are for vision-impaired voters. Absentee paper ballots were received in the county board of elections office Wednesday.
TRIAD provides professional technical services for voting machines.
"We should have them all tested and ready to go Thursday, hopefully," Leahy said. "That's our goal."
Each Automark voting machine is programmed to read ballots to voters. When a voter inserts a ballot into an Automark machine and touches the display screen, the machine will read the portion of the ballot indicated by the touch and mark the ballot according to the choice of the voter. Each polling location is to have one Automark machine to assist voters.
The first year Seneca County had Automark machines available for voters was 2006, so this is to be the first presidential election for which the Automark machines are to be available in the county.
Prior to 2006, if a voter needed assistance with voting because of a vision impairment, the voter could bring another person to go into the voting booth with them to assist. The voter also could ask for assistance at the polling location and one Democratic poll worker and one Republican poll worker would accompany the voter in the voting booth to assist. One poll worker would read the ballot to the voter and the other poll worker would mark the ballot.
Voters who use the Automark machines still may bring another person to assist or ask for assistance from poll workers.
Leahy said Seneca County has not had many voters who needed assistance.
An Automark machine is available in the board of elections office for voters who choose to vote early.
The board of elections should be sending absentee ballots today to voters who requested them.
If a voter requested an absentee ballot, the voter cannot come to the board of elections office to vote early. They must use the ballot sent to them in the mail, board of elections workers said. After completing the ballot, they may return the ballot to the board of elections office in person or return it by mail.
If a voter requested an absentee ballot, the voter cannot disregard the absentee ballot and go to the normal polling location to vote Nov. 4, board of elections workers said. Once an absentee ballot is assigned to a voter and sent, that ballot is their one and only ballot for voting, elections workers said.
Until Monday, county residents still can register to vote. It is possible to register and vote early until that date.
The Seneca County Board of Elections office is located at 71 S. Washington Street, Tiffin.
