STOW: City Council may be asking voters to move city office primary elections from September to May — and the reason is an age-old timing problem that potentially keeps overseas and military residents from being able to vote on all offices.
Council President Mike Rasor and Mayor Sara Kline will introduce legislation at Thursday’s council meeting asking for the city charter to be amended to move primary elections in odd-numbered years to the spring. If council agrees, voters would decide the matter sometime in 2017.
Primaries in even-numbered years are already in March for presidential elections, and May for gubernatorial elections.
Stow isn’t the only city with September primaries the rest of the time. Akron, Barberton, Cuyahoga Falls, Green, New Franklin, Norton and Tallmadge also have fall elections.
But here’s the challenge: Federal law requires the Summit County Board of Elections to mail overseas ballots no later than 45 days before the November general election.
That deadline comes before Summit County has the time to audit all late-arriving provisional and absentee ballots, conduct a recount if necessary, and certify final results of primaries held in September.
The election board currently deals with this timing problem by sending two ballots to overseas voters. One ballot contains all candidates and issues in the event that final election outcomes match unofficial election night tallies. A second ballot excludes candidates that were part of a September primary.
If a primary vote is changed after the overseas ballots are mailed, the second ballot is still valid because it doesn’t include the error. But that also means the overseas voter had to miss the opportunity to vote on local offices that advanced to the general election.
Three years ago, overseas ballots to Akron voters were missing a city council candidate’s name because a court decision added the candidate after the ballots were mailed.
Paula Sauter, the election board’s deputy director, said the board “doesn’t tell anybody how to legislate,” but added that she’s always happy to “volunteer information” when a community asks about the deadline issue.
“It’s not just us. It affects all counties,” she added.
In Stow, only a few people are affected. This past November, 16 Stow ballots were mailed to international addresses.
Still, Rasor said, “If this helps even one military voter to receive his or her ballot on time, then this move is worthwhile.”
There’s another good reason for cities to move to May, he added. It’s cheaper.
Election costs are spread across all of the Summit County communities who hold an election on a given date.
Because more primaries are held in May, Stow’s share would be around $20,000 instead of the $34,500 it pays now to be part of a September election.
Sauter confirmed that if Stow leaves September, the cities still holding primaries that month would see a slight increase in costs.
There’s one more bonus for a May primary: They typically have a higher voting turnout than the fall.
In 2013, for instance, nearly 20 percent of registered voters turned out for May primaries, while September’s turnout was just over 8 percent.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.
