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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- The Belmont County Board of Elections is wrapping up 2023 and preparing for 2024 and the upcoming presidential election.
The election this past November was closed Thursday with the regular audit of 5% of the votes.
Elections Director Aaron Moore said four precincts were randomly selected, including precincts in St. Clairsville, Holloway, Yorkville and Barnesville. There were 978 ballots to be counted.
"We just do a hand count and make sure the hand count matches what the tally was," he said.
Two Democrats and two Republicans were tasked with counting. Afterward, he said the audit came back 100% accurate.
Moore also reported on progress and preparations to the board of elections. Board member Michael Shaheen was absent.
Moore reminded those present and the public that the deadline for filing a petition to be on the March 19 primary election ballot is Dec. 20. Moore said the board will certify the petitions.
"We've got a few (petitions), but people normally wait 'til the deadline, so we're anticipating getting a lot of petitions in on Dec. 20.
Moore also said local elections boards are awaiting the finalized agreement between the state and Dominion Voting Systems.
"The secretary of state requires that contracts with any of our election vendors have security language written inside those contracts. Our vendor is working with the secretary of state to make sure the appropriate wording was in the contracts. They have come to that agreement and the wording was in that contract, so they will be sending that down for us to sign, too," Moore said.
He said there will also be some adjustments in poll worker training. There will now be a single three-hour class instead of two shorter classes.
"In the past, we would have two classes. We had one class for the poll worker training and we had a second class just dedicated to our electronic poll books that we use for checking in voters. We did that because not everyone at the time was using the electronic poll books. Now that every single location has electronic poll books, we are able to join those classes together," he said.
Moore said classes will also ensure new and veteran poll workers are knowledgeable about the basics as well as newer procedures.
"We haven't really reached out yet for the March primary ballot poll workers. We will be sending those out soon, but we'll be hoping to get a good mix," Moore said.
Anyone interested in working the polls can reach the board at 740-526-0188.
In other matters, the board discussed placing another one-way sign outside the board office to direct traffic. Members noted the possibility of collisions and near-collisions.
"Not that we've had any issues now, but again, coming into a presidential year, traffic will be a little busy so we want to make sure signage is available," Moore said.
The board office is located at 52180 National Road, St. Clairsville.