LISBON — The Columbiana County Board of Elections hired an experienced elections worker Tuesday to fill an opening for a full-time Democratic clerk at the office.

Salineville Mayor Chad Bettis received the nod from the full board after being recommended by the two Democratic members of the four-member board, Patty Colian and attorney Charley Kidder.

“We felt he would be the best candidate,” Colian said after the meeting.

Kidder, who’s also the Columbiana County Democratic Party Chairman, said they looked at people who had worked at the election board at election time and chose Bettis.

“He had the experience we thought we needed,” he said, noting the short amount of time until the next election, which is May 6.

Bettis will fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Democratic clerk Diane Raptis effective April 4. Since she was a Democrat, the two Democratic members got to recommend her successor.

Board chairman David Johnson, who is also the county Republican Party Chairman, called Bettis an outstanding candidate and Director Kim Fusco said she and Administrative Assistant Niki Wilkinson were very well satisfied.

Kidder explained that Bettis can still serve the remaining two years of his term as mayor, but can’t be a candidate so he won’t be able to run again. He said they sought a prosecutor’s opinion on that. He’ll also have to recuse himself from handling anything that has to do with Salineville in the office, according to both Kidder and Colian.

The staff at the county Board of Elections includes six members, with two Democratic clerks and two Republican clerks. The director, Fusco, is a Democrat and Wilkinson switched to Republican to become administrative assistant. The board itself is also bipartisan, with two Republicans and two Democrats.

Besides hiring Bettis, the board also had to officially accept the resignation of Raptis, with Fusco saying she was a good clerk and will be greatly missed. Colian said she was very good at what she did.

In other business, the board learned that for the upcoming primary, the Ohio Secretary of State sent out a directive for at least 39 counties to use paper poll books instead of the electronic poll pads on Election Day.

Fusco said the directive gave no explanation for why they have to go back to paper poll books instead of the electronic poll pads which have been used since 2016 to check voter signatures when they arrive to vote after presenting identification.

“Is that going to slow things down?” Johnson asked.

Fusco said it all depends on turnout, but switching back to paper poll books, which they can print at the office, will require some retraining of poll workers. Instead of the familiar green case with the electronic poll pad, poll workers will have printed poll sheets in a three-ring binder.

Only the 39 counties in the state who use KNOWINK for their electronic poll books have to go back to paper, according to Fusco. She doesn’t know if that will be the case in the fall, too, or not.

In other business related to the upcoming election, the board agreed to allocate voting machines to precincts and allocated ballots for the election. With 66,451 registered voters, the board allocated at least 1 percent more, with 67,600 ballots ordered for the election. Also multi precinct polling locations will have two of the optical scanners, while single precinct locations will have one. Each polling location will have one Express/Vote machine for voters who may have a special need.

The board also approved chargebacks for the Nov. 5, 2024 general election totaling $52,208 for ballots and advertising costs to be split between the political subdivisions who had issues on the ballot. The amounts will be sent to the county auditor to be subtracted from the property taxes for each entity. The amount for each entity is based on a formula related to the number of precincts.

Fusco reported that as of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the first day of early voting, 36 voters had come to the office to vote in person, with 23 Republicans and 13 non-partisan. A total of 234 absentee ballots had been mailed out as of Tuesday.

The next meeting of the board has been set for 9:30 a.m. May 5, which is the day before the primary/special election.