The deadline to register to vote in the May election is April 8.
Allen County Board of Elections Director Kathy Meyer was the guest speaker at the Lima Rotary Club on Monday. The board is currently preparing for the May 7 election which she says is technically not a "primary" election because there are no candidates on the ballot. Since there are only issues, this is called a special election. Meyer says they can always use precinct workers. There are 38 polling locations scattered around the county and they need to have at least 4 precinct workers at each location.
Meyer says the Board of Elections has utilized state grant money to upgrade its voting system."We have new equipment in place. We have new software, new computers. We also have new tabulators. They're digital versus analog. They will take a digital picture of your ballot. We can pull up the write-ins on the screen instead of having to sort through the ballots. For you as a voter, you're not going to see a whole lot of changes."
Meyer also gave us a tour through the Board of Elections website and showed us how to find out if we are registered to vote, how to cast an absentee ballot, how overseas military personnel can vote, where to find the candidates and issues that will be on the ballot, and much more. She encourages everyone to explore for themselves at https://boe.allencountyohio.com/
Also at Monday's meeting, Lesley Fry took the opportunity during fellowship to introduce the new dean and director of The Ohio State University Lima campus, Dr. Timothy Rehner, who was her guest.