by Dorothy Markulis
Reporter
Hudson -- Summit County Board of Election workers were kept hopping on Election Day trying to prevent ballot shortages at a number of sites.
Five precincts -- in Barberton, Green, Tallmadge, Munroe Falls and Twinsburg -- ran out of ballots. County election workers had to get permission from the Secretary of State's office to deliver photocopies to those sites so everybody in line by 7:30 p.m. could vote, according to Board of Elections Director Marijean Donofrio.
"It was a higher turnout than anticipated," Donofrio said. "We tried to provide what we thought we needed, but we didn't have enough."
Donofrio said 102 out of 475 precincts throughout Summit County reported they were running low on ballots after using more than 75 percent of the ballots they had on hand. However, Donofrio said on Nov. 4 that she believes only the five precincts actually ran out.
Calls from precincts about low ballot supplies started coming in around 4 and 5 p.m., Donofrio said. The Board of Elections immediately started printing more, she said, noting it took about an hour to print ballots and another half hour to deliver them to the polling places around the county.
The ballot-on-demand machines Board employees use can print 100 ballots in 25 minutes, she said.
When Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner learned of the ballot shortages, she ordered anyone in line before the polls closed at 7:30 would be allowed to vote. She also gave permission to the Summit County Board of Elections to photocopy ballot documents to make up for the shortage.
Voters who were in line at 7:30 were told they could vote as soon as ballots were received at the respective polling places, said Donofrio, adding voters did not need to wait at the polling place -- they could stay or come back.
She said some voters were called to come back when the ballots were received.
Donofrio said she did not know how many potential voters did not vote because they did not wait for the ballots to be delivered to the precincts. However, the day after the election, she said she was not aware of anyone calling the board to complain about not being able to vote.
"This will never happen again," Donofrio said, noting the Board of Elections determines how many ballots to print based on the voter turnout four years ago.
In 2005, there was a 39 percent turn out at the polls.
"We use that figure and add 5 percent" to determine how many ballots to print and send, she said. "Some areas, like Tallmadge had a 70 percent turnout. That's huge compared to four years ago. There was no way to anticipate that."
Editor's note: Reporter Amanda Harnocz contributed to this article.
E-mail: dmarkulis@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-686-3943