Even though Ohio hasn’t finished drawing districts for state legislative seats, the primary election on May 3 will go ahead for local races only.
Voters won’t get to choose their state senator, state representative or state central committee member on the May 3 ballot.
“There’s going to have to be another primary, but we don’t know when. We don’t have that information. It hasn’t been decided,” said Theresa Nielsen, deputy director of the Portage County Board of Elections.
Referring to the April 6 Hannah Report, which covers Ohio state government, Nielsen said federal courts may take the decision out of Ohio lawmakers’ hands and set their own date for a second primary.
At issue are the maps that determine state and congressional districts. They’re redrawn every decade to reflect population shifts discovered in the most recent census. But the political party in power has typically drawn maps that give themselves an unfair advantage.
In 2015, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment to outlaw Ohio’s long history of gerrymandering so that no districts “shall be drawn primarily to favor or disfavor a party.”
However, with state lawmakers in perpetual disagreement, and the Ohio Supreme Court rejecting maps found to favor the Republican Party, every map proposed so far has been unconstitutional.
“At this point in time it seems like a stalemate. Everybody’s waiting for somebody else to make a decision,” Nielsen said.
How to vote absentee
Residents who wish to receive an absentee ballot have until noon April 30 to apply, but the Board of Elections strongly urges people not to wait until then “as the mail system will likely not deliver your ballot in a timely manner.”
To obtain an absentee ballot, click here, call the office at 330-297-3511 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, or pick one up at the drop box in front of the county administration building. When completing the application, voters must indicate if they wish to receive a Democrat, Republican, or Issues Only ballot.
For early voting purposes for the May 3 primary, the Portage County Board of Elections will be open to the public:
- April 11 – April 15: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- April 18 – April 22: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- April 25 – April 29: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Saturday, April 30: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Sunday, May 1: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
- May 2: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
There will be no in-office voting on Election Day, May 3. Voters are directed to their assigned polling locations.
Correction: Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this story reported incorrectly that federal races had also been postponed. The article has been corrected.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.