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ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Board of Elections took steps to prepare for the May 8 primary election on Tuesday.
Two county offices will be on the ballot during the primary — the auditor’s office, currently held by Roger Conroy, and the Belmont County commission seat now held by Mark Thomas. The deadlines to file to run for office is Feb. 7, but board members said that so far no one — not even the incumbents — has filed for either office.
The board also heard from Russ Dawson, an information technician with Votec, which provided equipment for the board’s voting system during the last election. Board members noted several minor technical issues occurred during the last election, adding that the problems were chiefly issues where some of the laptops froze and had to be restarted. November marked the first time the county used this system.
âTheyáre going to upgrade our system,ã Shubat said, adding that the laptops will be replaced by laptops with greater amounts of memory.
Dawson added that this change will be done at no charge to the county. He said the county can expect to receive the new equipment by Monday.
âBasically the software that my company uses in support, which is called VoteSafe … the VoteSafe software was performing as advertised, but my company, Votec, put it on a computer that didnát have the necessary processing speed and disk space to let that perform as it needed. That was a mistake that Votec made,ã he said.
In other matters, Bellaire schools Superintendent Darren Jenkins said the board was welcome to make use of the districtás newly constructed fieldhouse as a polling location for the site currently used by four precincts in the West Bellaire Community Center.
âIt would really be a great facility for what we need,ã board member Michael Shaheen said, adding that a portion of the fieldhouse used as the visitorás locker room could be closed off and secured. He said considerable parking space is available there for voters and workers.
âWe would certainly welcome the opportunity to partner with the board of elections,ã Jenkins said. âThat facility is a community facility.ã
The board will consider this, as well as other possible sites around the village.
In addition, Goshen Township Trustee Richard Whitely Jr. spoke on behalf of the other trustees, suggesting the use of the newly constructed Bethesda Christian Church as a polling location.
âItás a fairly new facility, a one-level facility,ã he said, adding that 1,300 people in the township would utilize the church for voting.
The board will consider use of the church as a site for two precincts.
Also, the board approved a bid from Integrated Voting Solutions to provide ballots for the primary election. The ballots are available at a price of $325 per 1,000 11-inch ballots; the price for 14-inch ballots is $345 per 1,000, and the price for a 17-inch ballots is $370 per 1,000. The price for 18-inch ballots is $380 per 1,000. The sizes needed will be determined.