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YOUNGSTOWN -- Voters have raised concerns over polling location changes for the Nov. 3 general election, but Mahoning County Board of Elections officials say it's nothing out of the ordinary.
Director Tom McCabe said eight changes have been made to polling locations across Mahoning County, affecting about 18,000 voters. While such changes are commonplace, he said, he understands that the number of changes may seem alarming to some.
"Usually there's two or three every year, so this list was a little bigger than usual," he said. "What we try to do is keep current locations instead of creating new ones."
The board has called a press conference for today at 10:30 a.m. in its boardroom at Oakhill Renaissance Place to discuss polling location changes and other issues.
The Vindicator reported in August that the changes were likely, and the board sent out notification post cards to affected voters in those precincts last week.
McCabe explained the changes are largely to do with reducing single-precinct locations, while a few other cases are the result of facility concerns or redundancy.
"Every county does it, we've done it before," he said. "Every election, we have locations that need to move."
The polling site at First Presbyterian Church, 201 Wick Ave. (Youngstown 1 A), has been moved to the Richard Eugenia Atkinson Center, 903 Otis Avenue, which relocates a single-precinct voting site to a location three minutes away.
One of the most substantial changes was relocating five precincts from Four Mile Run Christian Church in Austintown (AUS 4, 7, 13, 20) and Galilee Apostolic Church, 3939 Potomoc Ave. (AUS 24) to Immaculate Heart of Mary, 4490 Norquest Blvd.
Immaculate Heart is about 1.4 miles from Four Mile Run Christian and 1.2 miles from Galilee Apostolic. Those changes were made because Four Mile Run Christian Church closed and Galilee Apostolic only had one precinct. Eleven precincts are now at Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Also in Austintown, the Austintown Township Hall polling site, 82 Ohltown Road (AUS 3), moved to Cornerstone Church, 6749 Mahoning Ave. McCabe said that is because the site was a single-precinct location and there have been issues with parking in the past.
The polling site at Boardman United Methodist Church, 6809 Market St. (BDM 9,18,36) was moved to Bridge of Hope Church, 7580 Glenwood, about 1.5 miles away.
McCabe said that was because of Americans With Disabilities Act compliance issues.
The polling site at Boardman Library, 7680 Glenwood, (BDM 26, 33) also moved to Bridge of Hope. McCabe said it makes sense from an administrative standpoint because now the board isn't staffing two polling places that are effectively right next door to each other. Only the former St. James Episcopal Church stands between them.
The polling location at Canfield Library, 43 W. Main St (CNF 1,3,8), has been moved to Mill Creek MetroParks Farm, 7574 Columbiana-Canfield Road. That's about 1.2 miles away. McCabe said MetroParks was the original location, and the board moved the precincts back to their prior location. Those precincts have been moved twice since St. Michael's Church discontinued its relationship with the board of elections in 2024.
After the 2023 elections, the priest at St. Michael's expressed concern about controversial political signs that went up near the church. The board first moved the polling location to the Canfield Fairgrounds, which did not work well. Last year, they moved to the library. McCabe said the MetroParks location is one voters are familiar with from years past.
The polling site at Beloit Municipal Building, 17893 Fifth St. (No.1), has been moved to Beloit Evangelical Friends Church, 10842 Fifth St. McCabe said that decision was made along with input from local leaders, who agreed it was better to move the voting booths for the single precinct to a larger location right across the street.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
The list of changes was generated in June and approved by the board in August. The final list excludes two previously proposed changes. The board nixed the idea of moving the polling place at Sulmona Valley winery in Struthers to St. Nicholas Social Hall because the distance between them was too great. They also scrapped the idea of moving the Craig Beach fire station polling site to the Milton Township fire station for similar reasons.
Whatever the reasons for moving or not moving, McCabe said the process of consolidating polling locations has been ongoing for about 28 years.
When he began his tenure with the board in 1999, Mahoning County had 416 precincts and 160 polling locations. This year, there are 212 precincts and 57 locations.
"We have to staff our locations with close to 900 people on Election Day," he said. This year the cuts save the board the need for 20 to 30 poll workers. "Which is a big deal, because it's getting tougher to get people to come to work elections."
McCabe noted previously that the Ohio Secretary of State's office wants counties to have 30% more poll workers than they need, in order to account for those who fall ill or don't show up. He said the county is usually lucky to just get the people it needs.
With so many people voting early and by absentee ballot, the strain on polling locations during elections is also considerably lower over the past several years.
Mahoning’s 724 voters per precinct is lowest among Ohio counties with a similar number of registered voters, immediately followed by Trumbull County with 830 voters per precinct.
McCabe previously said the board could eliminate 50 precincts to get to the state average of 892 voters per precinct.
Eliminating 40 precincts would save about $60,000 annually in costs but those savings would take a couple of years to materialize because of the cost to upgrade the board's software to place voters in different precincts, and the expense of mailing notifications to those who would change precincts.
As for notifications, McCabe said the board is still working to be sure voters all know where to go.
"Every voter is being notified," he said. "A second postcard may go out before the election, and on election day, we'll have people out to put signs on old locations telling voters where to go, in case we miss anyone."