Board of Elections gives raises to directors, talks future budget needs

SHEFFIELD TWP. — The Lorain County Board of Elections voted unanimously Tuesday to give raises to Director Paul Adams and Deputy Director James Kramer. Adams, a Democrat, now will make $99,500 annually. Kramer, a Republican, will make $99,000. The raises are effective Jan. 1, the board said. Board President Marilyn Jacobcik, a Republican, and board member Anthony Giardini, a Democrat, said both men deserved the raises. "We've underpaid them proportionate" to the work they've done, Jacobcik said, jokingly asking the two men not to use their raises "as a negotiating tool." Giardini said he personally believed both men were underpaid for the size of the county they work in and for the experience they bring to the job they do. Adams, who said he and Kramer have worked together for 12 years, thanked the board for their trust and faith in the job he and Kramer do. Board member Jack Baird, a Republican who was appointed to the board in April 2020, said he has been impressed with the professionalism shown by Kramer and Adams ever since he joined the four-member board. The board also voted unanimously to increase its 2022 budget request to Lorain County Board of Commissioners to reflect both the raises and the need to replace ePollbook electronic tablets used by poll workers. The cost of the new ePollbooks is estimated to be between $400,000 and $500,000. The board is under a directive from the Ohio secretary of state to replace the current devices by 2024, Adams told commissioners at an Oct. 21 budget hearing. In other news The board rejected 22 absentee ballots and 16 provisional ballots that were cast in the Nov. 2 election. Of the 3,970 absentee ballots received, 99.4 percent were accepted. Of the 336 provisional ballots cast, 95.2 percent were accepted. Adams said: Fifteen absentee ballots were not received on time or postmarked after deadline. Five absentee ballots were returned without a signature. One absentee ballot was returned with a non-matching signature and election workers could not contact the voter by phone, mail or email. One absentee voter did not include proper identification on their ID envelope. Additionally, the board rejected: Eleven provisional ballots cast by voters who were not registered to vote in Ohio. Three ballots from voters who cast ballots in the wrong polling location and wrong precinct. The ballot of one provisional voter who voted early at the Board of Elections office on Oct. 20 due to a change of address, then tried to cast a second provisional ballot at their polling place on Nov. 2. The ballot of one provisional voter who failed to provide identification or the wrong identifying information. The board accepted the votes of six voters who voted in the correct polling place but the wrong precinct, and the vote of one person whose initial ballot was voided due to a ballot reader error and should have been reissued a second ballot. Another ballot was accepted after board members determined that the voter wrote in the wrong address, which was only one digit off from correct and came from a nursing home resident. Two additional ballots were approved despite their initial rejection. Kramer said he investigated and determined a mechanical error caused the ballot to be rejected by an electronic ballot reader, Kramer said. Those voters did nothing wrong, Jacobcik said, and their ballots were accepted by the board. The board meets again at 3 p.m. Nov. 22 to certify the results of the Nov. 2 election and schedule an audit of the results. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him @daveobrienCT on Twitter.