By Sam Wildow
TROY — The Miami County Board of Elections met on Wednesday evening to certify the May 3 primary election results, also briefly discussing a voter who cast two ballots during the May 3 primary election.
Director Laura Bruns of the Miami County Board of Elections said the office found duplicate ballots from the same voter, one of which was cast during the early voting period on April 11. That same voter then cast a provisional ballot on Election Day.
Bruns said the voter was an elderly voter. The office referred the incident to the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office as voting more than once or attempting to vote more than once at the same election is illegal. The Prosecutor’s Office “declined to take any action,” Bruns said.
A representative from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office said during the meeting that this does occur occassionally with elderly voters who may have forgotten they already voted, citing a similar incident in Darke County.
By a majority vote, the board voted 3-1 to accept the voter’s first ballot, which was cast in-person on April 11 at the board’s office. The board voted unanimously to reject his second ballot, which was the provisional ballot. Board member Audrey Gillespie voted against accepting either of his ballots, citing that it is illegal to vote twice and not wanting to set a precedent.
Prior to certifying the May 3 primary election results, the board also voted to accept approximately 119 provisional ballots and reject 17 provisional ballots, the latter of which had issues such as the voter not being registered to vote, no identification was provided, the wrong date of birth given, and wrong county of residence. The May 3 election primary saw approximately 21% turnout from registered voters.
Also during Wednesday’s meeting, the board planned for a potential August primary election for the offices of state senator, state representative, and state central committee as those offices were left off of the May 3 primary ballot due to the ongoing redistricting issues at the state level. The board is tentatively planning for an Aug. 2 special election, which is subject to change, authorizing the training schedules for election officials, the equipment and ballot allocations, and a contract for movers to deliver the voting machines to polling locations on the special election.
At the state level on Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected Republican-drawn Statehouse maps for a fifth time, according to the Associated Press.
