Many types of Board of Elections tie votes are forwarded to Ohio’s Secretary of State, with Frank LaRose’s vote breaking the tie. But personnel tie votes do not go to the SoS, so the board was at a stalemate Tuesday.
The incoming deputy director, a Democrat, would assist Lampert, a Republican, with the responsibilities of running county elections. In Ohio, county election departments work in pairs of Republicans and Democrats, aiming to ensure fairness. The director and deputy execute the day-to-day operations of the office, while the four board members have voting power and oversight.
The Greene County elections board was also at odds Tuesday over a Republican-led motion to republish a hiring notice, this time with a $10,000 sign-on bonus. This motion was later amended to a $5,000 sign-on bonus, after Democratic board member Kim McCarthy said she raised the question of a $10,000 bonus to county leadership, and they had “laughed in her face.”
“The length of time that is going to push us out is going to bring us dangerously close to the presidential election and have us in danger of once again failing to prepare adequately for Greene County voters — all 119,000 of them,” McCarthy said. “We have a qualified candidate in our ranks, and I feel like this is just going to delay and not bring us the added candidates that we’re looking for.”
Still, Republicans insisted they re-publish the hiring notice.
“I think we can move forward by posting this in a variety of places, and we’ll gain greater scope of applicants,” said Republican Jan Basham.
Elections Director Alisha Lampert expressed frustration with the board, pointing out they had had no luck in posting the notice to existing platforms, and had only gotten any results at all from the county website.
Similar to last week, the board eventually adjourned the meeting without a consensus, and Democratic board member Kim McCarthy dissented in the vote to adjourn at all.
The Greene County elections board was tasked with finding a new deputy director after longtime elections leader and Democrat Llyn McCoy left the position at the beginning of this year.
The 2024 primary election in Ohio is March 19. It will feature party primaries in the races for president and U.S. Senate, and, depending on the county, primaries in races for U.S. Congress, state legislature and county offices, as well as local tax levies.
Greene County’s Board of Elections is currently on Administrative Oversight from the Ohio Secretary of State over multiple errors on the November ballot last year.
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