Oakhill Renaissance Place

By DAVID SKOLNICK

Staff writer

YOUNGS-TOWN — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has entered the ongoing debacle over the condition of the Mahoning County Board of Elections’ office, writing he “was alarmed” about it and asked board Chairman David Betras about the problems.

In a Nov. 7 email to Betras, LaRose asked about a Sept. 29 waterline puncture that flooded the area at Oakhill Renaissance Place, where the board’s voting equipment is stored. None of the equipment was damaged.

“However, this situation, combined with months of local discussions about the condition of the facility that houses the board of elections, raises concerns,” LaRose, a Republican, wrote in a Nov. 7 letter to Betras.

LaRose asked Betras, a Democrat, to assess the board and whether its facilities at 345 Oak Hill Ave. comply with secretary of state requirements regarding “security standards and is prepared to deliver the type of elections that our voters have come to expect.”

In a Thursday response, Betras wrote that he had warned county commissioners “that such a failure in the aging infrastructure was not only possible, but increasingly likely. Unfortunately, those concerns proved prescient. While we were extremely fortunate that the leak occurred during work hours — allowing staff to respond immediately and prevent what could have been the loss of millions of dollars’ worth of voting equipment — the risk we faced underscores the seriousness of the facility’s deficiencies.”

Betras has been raising issues about the condition of the board’s office at Oakhill and demanding a new building for a few years. County commissioners say they are looking into possible new locations for the board, but nothing has been finalized.

The pipe broke Sept. 29 when county maintenance employees were working in the area. None of the voting machines were damaged, but the board switched out seven of them for backups during the Nov. 4 election as a cautionary measure.

In his Thursday email, Betras wrote that the board is in compliance with cybersecurity requirements and only after numerous concerns were publicly raised, the board’s fire suppression system is in compliance. Betras wrote that the board remains out of compliance with its alarm system, but has “been assured that this work will be completed by Dec. 1.”

Regarding the building, Betras wrote: “The current facility simply does not provide us with any physical alternative or the capacity to remedy this risk (of pipes leaking again and causing damage). While the optimal and safest long-term solution is to house our election offices and our voting equipment in the same secure facility, we have not been provided with another suitable site for the machines. We continue to be told that a new home for the board of elections is forthcoming, but as of the date of this letter, no concrete plan or timeline has been presented to us.”

Betras added: “Until we are provided with a new building — one that meets the basic structural, environmental and security requirements needed for modern election administration — we cannot be assured that another catastrophic facility failure will not occur.”

Betras thanked LaRose for his “ongoing commitment to safeguarding the integrity and accessibility of elections across Ohio, and our willingness to engage directly with us as partners in that effort.”