Most government offices are in a summertime lull, but Ohio’s boards of elections are buzzing with activity.
Outside of the March and November election seasons, July is a busy time for the boards as they work to validate petition signatures for potential issues, parties and candidates.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office intakes, sorts and dates the full and partial petitions delivered from all over the state, but boards take over from there through a decentralized process.
County-by-county, staffers—some seasonal—are currently checking signature stacks, including for an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment put forward by Citizens Not Politicians. Statewide, Citizens Not Politicians said July 1 it collected and submitted more than 730,000.
LaRose's office will send the paper petitions by mail, but Anthony Kaloger, with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said his team usually drives to Columbus to get them since they only have 10 days to get through them.
“It could be a very accelerated timetable for us,” Kaloger said in an interview Friday.
Cuyahoga County hired more than 50 signature verification and quality assurance staffers this year to prepare for the Citizens Not Politicians petitions. They are tasked with checking whether each individual signature submitted matches what is in the voter registration database, from the signature itself to the mailing address, and then physically and digitally check-marking it.
“If we have a name of John Smith and we don't have an address at, if we have 123 Main Street as the address and we don't have a John Smith who lives there, then that would be rejected,” Kaloger said.
On the Citizens Not Politicians proposal, validated signatures are due back by Thursday. In a smaller feat, boards are also in the process of checking the signatures for the Libertarian Party, which is requesting minority party status.
Information about the process to petition from start to finish is here.
