T-L Photos/GAGE VOTA ABOVE: Frankie Carnes, board chair for the Belmont County Board of Elections, and member Robert Quirk consider provisional ballots cast in the March 19 primary election.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Board of Elections decided Tuesday afternoon to accept or reject provisional ballots from this past week’s primary election.

The board received 91 provisional ballots; of those, 71 were accepted. Out of the 71 accepted, two needed to be remade. For one of the two that needed to be remade, the voter wrote down their driver’s license identification in the wrong spot. The second that needed to be remade put their correct birth date and month but put 2024 instead of their birth year. Based on all of the additional information both of these two voters gave they can be identified.

The board rejected two provisional votes due to them being cast in the wrong precinct. One of the two that were rejected did not vote in the correct location and precinct. The second voter did not give an address where they were registered anywhere in Belmont County. The board then rejected five additional votes due to these voters not being registered anywhere in the state of Ohio. The board used the Ohio voter database to research if the voters were registered anywhere in Ohio. It was unable to find any information about these voters based on identification such as birthday, address, or anything else.

Four voters were rejected due to them already voting absentee. The four voters were stopped at the polls but still voted provisionally. Due to these four voters voting twice, the matter will be handed over to the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department for review before being referred to prosecutors. Out of the four voters, the board already had communicated with two who contacted the board on the day of the election because they did not realize that they initially voted on the first day of absentee voting.

The final issue that elections Director Aaron Moore wanted to address Tuesday was one where a voter showed proper identification to the poll workers. On Election Day, this voter gave the proper identification but when they provided it on the envelope they did not provide a valid driver’s license number. The number given was not able to be identified as any form of driver’s license number. He then said that eight other voters did not provide proper identification on Election Day and did not come to the board’s office promptly to provide said identification. After some discussion, the meeting ended with the board approving 71 provisional ballots and rejecting 20 such votes.