Medina County Board of Elections accepts revised ballot for November election

MEDINA — A revised ballot for the upcoming November election was created to include a new independent candidate for Ohio secretary of state, Medina County Board of Elections Director Carol Lawler said during a board meeting Tuesday. The independent candidate is Terpsehore Maras, who is running against Republican incumbent Frank LaRose and Democrat Chelsea Clark. The change drastically affected the ballots that were previously prepared which was months' worth of work, Medina County Board of Elections Deputy Director Heather McDermott said. LaShondra Tinsley, a late write-in candidate for U.S. senator, was another addition, but that change did not impact the ballot as much, McDermott said. That is because there are multiple other write-in candidates for the race, so a line was already included on the ballot for voters to write in a candidate. There were 15,224 regular absentee ballot applications as of the end of the day on Friday for Medina County, Lawler said. The Board of Elections was estimating 15,000 absentee ballots would be sent out for the entire election, not just at the start of it. "It's a pretty popular election," she said. During the meeting, there was also a resolution to outsource additional absentee ballots. McDermott said the outsourcing is done to keep up with demand in case there is a large influx of applications that need to be fulfilled. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens absentee ballots go out first. Of the 87 ballots sent out, four have been returned already, Lawler said. Today is the earliest date that the regular absentee ballots can be sent out, and early in-person voting also starts today. There are 668 confirmed poll workers for the general election so far, Lawler said. Election Day is Nov. 8. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.