Speaker 1: Don't want to be an American.
Speaker 2: It's got so lun show back on seven hundred Woldy
Speaker 2: got election coming.
Speaker 1: Up to Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Levy's in a dozen places, local offices, and there's a
Speaker 2: big CPS renewal. We've got the mayor's race, of course,
Speaker 2: and some twenty six people. It feels like three thousand
Speaker 2: people trying to place in the top nine. So twenty
Speaker 2: six people looking for nine jobs in a Sea Down
Speaker 2: council on this and more. Is the person who controls
Speaker 2: it all. That would be the director of the Hamlin
Speaker 2: County Board of Elections, Sherry Poland, welcome back.
Speaker 1: How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing well, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: You always in a good mood.
Speaker 2: This is like right now I would be just crabby
Speaker 2: af you know what I mean, because you got so
Speaker 2: much coming at you right now.
Speaker 1: All right, so we'll start with this.
Speaker 2: The polls up on Tuesday, six thirty am to seven
Speaker 2: thirty I believe correct, that's.
Speaker 3: Crack six thirty am to seven thirty pm.
Speaker 1: Don't forget the driver's license.
Speaker 3: That's correct, that's correct. A few years ago, Hi Ohio
Speaker 3: changed these acceptable forms of ID for voting, so in
Speaker 3: order to vote in person, you do need to have
Speaker 3: a State of Ohio driver's license or a State of
Speaker 3: Ohio identification card, or a passport or military ID. So
Speaker 3: make sure it's not expired. Make sure it's up to
Speaker 3: date before you come to the polls.
Speaker 2: Okay, I bring one that's expired, I forget it. What happens,
Speaker 2: I can vote, no problem.
Speaker 3: If you do not have an acceptable form of ID,
Speaker 3: you will be issued what we call a provisional ballot.
Speaker 3: It's the same ballot that's issued to every other voter
Speaker 3: you would market, but instead of scanning it and having
Speaker 3: it counted election night, it's placed inside what we call
Speaker 3: a provisional envelope and that has your identifying information on it.
Speaker 3: You fill that out after election day. Bipartisan teams verify
Speaker 3: the information on the envelope, and the voter has four
Speaker 3: days after election day, so that's the Saturday after election
Speaker 3: day to come to the Board of Elections and present
Speaker 3: an acceptable form of ID. If they do, then that
Speaker 3: ballot will be added to the official count, which occurs
Speaker 3: a few weeks after election day. I do want to
Speaker 3: note that if you're in that, find yourself in that
Speaker 3: situation right now. So your driver's license or state idea
Speaker 3: is expired. Go to the BMV before you come to
Speaker 3: the polls. That interim documentation that the BMB gives you
Speaker 3: while your identification is being mailed to you, that interim
Speaker 3: idea that's good for driving purposes, it's also acceptable for voting.
Speaker 3: So if you have that, you will not have to
Speaker 3: vote provisionally.
Speaker 2: Okay, got it. Let's talk about the early voting numbers.
Speaker 2: How early voting the absentee ballots, and how does the
Speaker 2: request compared to previous elections and what does that tell
Speaker 2: you about what's going to happen Tuesday?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So absent te voting, which is that umbrella that
Speaker 3: contains both voting by mail and early in person voting.
Speaker 3: We're pretty much right on track as to the twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one election. So four years ago, once again Cincinnati
Speaker 3: was voting council members, mayor this election, that turnout is
Speaker 3: tracking right on pace with that twenty twenty one election.
Speaker 2: Okay, compare that to like the presidential cycle, the last
Speaker 2: presidential election, so one twenty percent.
Speaker 1: Okay, what are we talking?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so in twenty twenty one, county wide, we saw
Speaker 3: a twenty six percent turnout. City Cincinnati is slightly lower
Speaker 3: in twenty five percent. Compare that to a presidential where
Speaker 3: we see a seventy two percent turnout. So unfortunately, we
Speaker 3: don't see the turnout in odd numbered years elections than
Speaker 3: we do in the even years. But you know, we
Speaker 3: it's kind of hard for us in the business to
Speaker 3: understand why that happens, because we are voting for our
Speaker 3: local elected officials. These are the folks that really have
Speaker 3: an impact on our day to day lives. So I
Speaker 3: encourage everyone if you haven't voted yet, voted yet early
Speaker 3: voting in person is still ongoing through Sunday, and then
Speaker 3: you know your polls will be open in your community
Speaker 3: on election Day, get out and vote.
Speaker 2: I would say it's simply but it's marketing, I think, right,
Speaker 2: because in a presidential cycle, it's in your face all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: You're getting tons of robo calls.
Speaker 2: Social media feed is packed with political messages and bickering.
Speaker 2: You turn on a streaming show or TV and you're
Speaker 2: inundated with political messages. President presidential visis front and center,
Speaker 2: and I think it just the marketing drives more people
Speaker 2: to polls.
Speaker 1: That's my theory.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. Something else we see is that you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes controversial issues will bring voters out to the polls.
Speaker 3: So two years ago, twenty twenty three odd year, you know,
Speaker 3: election again looking electing local officials, we saw a higher turnout.
Speaker 3: I think we saw a forty eight percent turnout in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three. But that your abortion, marijuana. We're both
Speaker 3: on the ballot, So the issues can also drive out turnout.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And I think that's probably a good point too,
Speaker 2: is the more globally issued. That's a state issue. But
Speaker 2: everyone's like, okay, I can identify with that. You start
Speaker 2: talking about millage and levees and school boards and dogcatchers,
Speaker 2: people's eyes glaze over, rightly or wrongly. I think that's
Speaker 2: how we're programms. Like I got my ballot where we
Speaker 2: just moved to and looked at and were like three
Speaker 2: or four things on there, and most of them were
Speaker 2: fairly inane. There's a levee issue which I voted on,
Speaker 2: but the other ones are like, I don't know who
Speaker 2: these people are. Did some research found out some of them?
Speaker 2: Other ones I just and the ones I looked at
Speaker 2: when I have no idea who they are. I can't
Speaker 2: find any information on them. I just left blank, which
Speaker 2: is the same.
Speaker 3: You kid, you can absolutely skip the contest. That is
Speaker 3: your right to do that. But I think you bring
Speaker 3: up another very good point, and that is to become
Speaker 3: an informed voter. And it's easy to do if you
Speaker 3: vote by mail, because that ballot is mail to your house.
Speaker 3: You can fit take your time to the research. However,
Speaker 3: for this election, voting by mail has ended. That ended
Speaker 3: on Tuesday. Anyone who wished to vote by mail had
Speaker 3: to submit an application to the board by this past Tuesday,
Speaker 3: Chamber twenty, so voting by mail has ended. But what
Speaker 3: you can do if you are going to vote in
Speaker 3: person then is go on to our website vote Hamilton County,
Speaker 3: Ohio dot gov. Vote Hamilton County, Ohio dot gov. Go
Speaker 3: onto our website and you can look up your sample
Speaker 3: ballot on our website so it looks almost identical to
Speaker 3: the ballot you'll receive when you walk into the polling place.
Speaker 3: So reviewed ahead of time, do your research like you did,
Speaker 3: and become an informed voter so there's no surprises when
Speaker 3: you walk into the polling place. You can go in
Speaker 3: knowing how you want to cast your ballot.
Speaker 2: Scott's Onland with Sherry Poland she's the director Hamilin County
Speaker 2: Board of Elections. Got the election coming up Tuesday. If
Speaker 2: you're in person, at six point thirty relative to that, Sherry,
Speaker 2: you know, you mentioned the twenty right around twenty six
Speaker 2: percent turnout right around that maybe twenty five one.
Speaker 1: Out every four voters in the city.
Speaker 2: And sometimes issues will bring out more people on off
Speaker 2: year elections, as this one is because you don't have
Speaker 2: the hype of the presidential I understand that, and I
Speaker 2: think people are just fatigued too going I'm going to
Speaker 2: take a knee here this year.
Speaker 1: I don't need to show.
Speaker 2: But I thought, you know, with the crime issue in Cincinnati,
Speaker 2: and I know you can't get in and that's not
Speaker 2: your area concern, you're just managing the election. But I thought,
Speaker 2: for sure, with the interesting crime downtown and the number
Speaker 2: of people running for counsel, that would I get I guess,
Speaker 2: maybe drive more people out.
Speaker 3: That surprised me, you know, and it's still a possibility
Speaker 3: on election day. You know, the majority of voters in
Speaker 3: Hamilton County still choose to vote on election day, so
Speaker 3: you know, we might see that higher turnout come. Then.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't have a crystal ball that tells
Speaker 3: me that, But well I'll find out on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exact, we'll find out together on Tuesday. Regarding that too,
Speaker 2: how many more people this year and I'm sure you're
Speaker 2: looking at the trend and it's just align almost straight upward.
Speaker 2: Would guess the number of people taking advantage of the
Speaker 2: very generous way we can vote early in the Buckeye State,
Speaker 2: where like me, I just would rather have it mailed
Speaker 2: to my house. I'd get a cup of coffee, sit
Speaker 2: there on a Sunday afternoon morning, I guess before football
Speaker 2: and figure out who I'm and what I'm voting for,
Speaker 2: do a little research. Whereas typically you don't have that
Speaker 2: kind of time. You feel pressured if you're standing there
Speaker 2: in queue, and then you know, getting into the booth
Speaker 2: itself to actually punch the draw the little circles. I guess,
Speaker 2: not punch the card, but draw the circle. This is
Speaker 2: easier to know how many more people are taking advantge
Speaker 2: are we see that trend continue upward?
Speaker 3: What we're seeing continue to trend upward is the early
Speaker 3: in person voting. It's just become you know, extremely extremely
Speaker 3: popular in Hamilton County. It started when we moved the
Speaker 3: board of elections away from downtown to our current facility
Speaker 3: in Norwood. You know, it's more centrally located in the
Speaker 3: county that we serve. We have you know, a large
Speaker 3: amount of free public parking, and that's that is what's
Speaker 3: trending upward, is that early in person vote voting every
Speaker 3: election we outpass the last similar election. When it comes
Speaker 3: to that, voting by mail is you know, sort of
Speaker 3: holding study or maybe dropping slightly. You know, during twenty twenty,
Speaker 3: we had many many people vote by mail, obviously due
Speaker 3: to the pandemic, and we thought that perhaps that trend
Speaker 3: would continue because now we have so many people that
Speaker 3: were never exposed to voting by mail before, they might
Speaker 3: have found it to be very convenient. But that didn't happen.
Speaker 3: After twenty twenty, we went back to the majority of
Speaker 3: Hamiltons County voters casting the ballot the traditional way at
Speaker 3: the polling place on.
Speaker 1: Election I hate that's happening.
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, I think one way. You know,
Speaker 3: we live in the Midwest. We like our traditions. You know,
Speaker 3: I know a lot of people that say to me,
Speaker 3: you know, no, I go into my polling place on
Speaker 3: election day. That's a sacred day. To me, that's what
Speaker 3: I do and I'm not going to deviate, you know,
Speaker 3: from that, which you know, I think is interesting. Then
Speaker 3: we have a lot of people with the early voting.
Speaker 3: You know, we have voting for almost a month at
Speaker 3: our Early Vote Center, and it is and people find
Speaker 3: it to be, you know, extremely convenient. I will note
Speaker 3: obviously on election day you must go to your assigned
Speaker 3: polling place, which is based on where you live, whereas
Speaker 3: at the Early Vote Center, you know, anyone who lives
Speaker 3: of matter where you live in Hamilton Counties, your registered voter,
Speaker 3: you can come and vote the Early voat Center. So
Speaker 3: many times we see families coming together so where they
Speaker 3: might be you know, assigned to different polling places because
Speaker 3: they don't all live, you know, in the same home.
Speaker 3: We see a lot of people sort of making a
Speaker 3: family event and coming together the Early Votes Center, then
Speaker 3: going going out to eat or something like that afterwards,
Speaker 3: or sort of the stories that we that we hear
Speaker 3: and again it's it's extremely convenient. And the hours that
Speaker 3: we have I will note we're open today and tomorrow
Speaker 3: from seven thirty am to seven thirty pm Saturday, eight
Speaker 3: am to four pm. Early voting ends on Sunday, and
Speaker 3: it's the shortest hours we have by state law. We're
Speaker 3: open from one pm to five pm on Sunday, so
Speaker 3: still plenty of time to come on and vote early
Speaker 3: in person at the.
Speaker 2: Board Cherry Poland with all the event of early voting,
Speaker 2: and you know, they're still traditional south there. I don't
Speaker 2: know how young people do that, because you know young people,
Speaker 2: they'll probably mail it in. I mean, if you could
Speaker 2: text your vote in the all over that I would guess.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'd be that way too, I suppose. But how
Speaker 2: is this changing how you tabulate the elections? And normally
Speaker 2: you're sitting around waiting for the results to come in.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's the middle of the night when they come.
Speaker 2: You know, if you're voting early, either in person, by
Speaker 2: mail or however, you have those votes and of course
Speaker 2: you have them in hand and you're ready to release
Speaker 2: those results the minute the polls closed. So you got
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff done up front, so to speak.
Speaker 2: How does that changed your job and also when the
Speaker 2: results come out, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 3: A great question. You know, in the state of Ohio,
Speaker 3: we are permitted election officials are permitted to process those
Speaker 3: vote by mail ballots as soon as they come in.
Speaker 3: You have a handful of states that won't allow the
Speaker 3: election officials to begin those acts of preparation until election warning.
Speaker 3: But in Ohio, we can verify all the information that's
Speaker 3: contained on the envelope ahead of time as soon as
Speaker 3: we receive it. Once we determine that that vote by
Speaker 3: mail ballot is accepted for counting, we remove the ballot.
Speaker 3: It scanned, it's not tabulated, it's scanned, and the cast
Speaker 3: vote record is what we call it is stored. And
Speaker 3: then the ballot is stored in a secure facility here
Speaker 3: at the Ware of Elections. Then on election night, as
Speaker 3: soon as the polls closed at seven point thirty one PM,
Speaker 3: we then hit the tabulate button, so the no ballots
Speaker 3: are counted until the polls closed. But we are permitted
Speaker 3: to do those acts of preparation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, scam, get him ready to go, so that makes
Speaker 2: the results come in here. And that's a big question here,
Speaker 2: Sherry Poland. Is it's not about you know, free and
Speaker 2: open elections and exercising your constitutional right to cast your
Speaker 2: vote one person, one voice, and one vote, as the
Speaker 2: case may be.
Speaker 1: This is not about that.
Speaker 2: This is about Brian Combs, our assistant news director, wants
Speaker 2: to know what time he can go home on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: Tuesday night.
Speaker 3: Again, I don't have a crystal ball that would that
Speaker 3: would tell me that we hope, always hope at one
Speaker 3: hundred to be one hundred percent report before eleven pm,
Speaker 3: you know. And again just to talk a little bit
Speaker 3: more about the election night count and how that works.
Speaker 3: We mentioned the early votes that's early in person and
Speaker 3: by mail are the very first ballots that are tabulated
Speaker 3: and released on election night, and then it's a little
Speaker 3: bit of a waiting game for those ballots to come
Speaker 3: in from the polling places all across Hamilton County. And
Speaker 3: that's because our voting equipment is not connected to the internet.
Speaker 3: In fact, that doesn't they don't even have the capability
Speaker 3: of being connected to the internet. So the physical delivery
Speaker 3: of the ballots and the equipment from the bipartisan poll
Speaker 3: workers to the bipartisan teams at the Board of Elections,
Speaker 3: so it takes a little time for them to come in.
Speaker 3: So we'll usually we have a few early pickup locations
Speaker 3: will actually send teams out from the board so we
Speaker 3: can have some results trickling in early. You know, usually
Speaker 3: between eight thirty and nine, but the majority of those
Speaker 3: ballots arrives at the board around so that's typically when
Speaker 3: we start to see you know, most of the results
Speaker 3: come in between nine thirty and ten thirty, and again
Speaker 3: we always hope to be at one hundred percent, you know,
Speaker 3: before before eleven o'clock. We know it's a long day.
Speaker 3: We know everyone is anxiously awaiting and constantly hitting that
Speaker 3: refresh button. But you know, a latch and officials will
Speaker 3: never trade you know, security and accuracy for speed, So
Speaker 3: I'll just have to be a little bit patient to
Speaker 3: make sure their results coming in are accuracy.
Speaker 2: I know you have last minute preparations. You got to
Speaker 2: go check the tires, make sure the dipstick has oil
Speaker 2: in it. You got to go make sure the voting
Speaker 2: machines everything's ready to go. You're a busy lady. I
Speaker 2: always appreciate it talking to you and enjoy our conversations
Speaker 2: and appreciate what you do for Democracy's an important thing,
Speaker 2: even especially in off years when you have lower turnout
Speaker 2: and probably fewer workers to deal with, et cetera. So
Speaker 2: all the best, Sherry poland thanks again for coming on
Speaker 2: the show. How about a nice quiet Tuesday. Does that
Speaker 2: sound good?
Speaker 3: That sounds wonderful to me.
Speaker 1: It does. You've seen some stuff, yeah, we have.
Speaker 3: But we have a great team here at the Board
Speaker 3: of Election. I cannot praise the staff here and now
Speaker 3: if it's truly a place where Democrats and the Republicans
Speaker 3: come together to do the people's work. So got to
Speaker 3: have a shout out.
Speaker 1: To them all the best.
Speaker 2: Cherry, be well, good luck, Thank you, Sherry poland that
Speaker 2: as you're a director Hamiley County Board of Elections and
Speaker 2: love it.
Speaker 1: She's great.
Speaker 2: She's just a great personnel, a great person and really
Speaker 2: cares about her job and the integrity of the election
Speaker 2: above all else. So six thirty am Tuesday, if you're
Speaker 2: an in person voter, go get it done. If you
Speaker 2: already did it, like me, just sit back and wait
Speaker 2: for results to come in. And I have no idea
Speaker 2: what to tell Brian Combs. This is all about Colms
Speaker 2: is like, Hey, you're talking to Sherry Paul. Ask her
Speaker 2: when she thinks I can go home. It's all about him.
Speaker 2: You know, this democracy of two hundred and fifty years
Speaker 2: still a long time, and we tabulate the elections and
Speaker 2: sometimes they're contentious, sometimes we fight two thousand comes to mind,
Speaker 2: and basically they're in the ought. So we had a
Speaker 2: lot of contentious elections. Along came her voting kind of
Speaker 2: eased the process, made a little bit easier. Uh you know,
Speaker 2: it wasn't like three or four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2: There weren't all these few challenges and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: especially on off here. We're not going to get that
Speaker 2: all Brian Colembs wants to know, despite all of that history,
Speaker 2: despite it being the cornerstone of our constitution of our
Speaker 2: whal life here in America, one person, one vote. All
Speaker 2: Brian Colmbs cares about is what time he can go
Speaker 2: home and have a beer. Scott's Loan Show, seven hundred
Speaker 2: W World