Latest / Brian Thomas / Sherry Poland - BOE - Polling Location Consolidations and Redistricting Changes For the Primary

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Sherry Poland - BOE - Polling Location Consolidations and Redistricting Changes For the Primary · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Here at fifty five cater ce the talk station.
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  Speaker 2: Brian Thomas wishing everyone a very happy Wednesday and inviting
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: everybody to lunch.
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  Speaker 1: They're going to be at Liberty Collective.
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  Speaker 2: They're excited about showing showing up there today about eleven thirty.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: You can show up real early.
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  Speaker 2: Their coffee shops opening at I think seven o'clock this morning,
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  Speaker 2: so it's open and welcome back. It's been a little while,
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  Speaker 2: but it is coming up on election time. We've got
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  Speaker 2: a May fifth primary. Write it down in your count
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  Speaker 2: and make sure you vote. Welcome back to Sherry Pulling
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  Speaker 2: from the Hamilton County Board of Elections. It's good having
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  Speaker 2: you on the show this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Brian, it's good to be here.
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  Speaker 2: Start with a thank you to you and all the
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  Speaker 2: folks at the Hamilton County Board of Elections. It is
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  Speaker 2: my experience and I'll praise you for it. A very
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  Speaker 2: well oiled machine at the Hamilton County Board of Elections.
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  Speaker 1: I think your location is great.
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  Speaker 2: Parking is easy, and even if there's a line around
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  Speaker 2: the corner out the door, that line goes very very quickly,
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  Speaker 2: but sadly not as much of a line we have
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  Speaker 2: primary season not a lot of folks take exercise their
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  Speaker 2: freedom to vote and their right to vote. But that's
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  Speaker 2: what we're going to talk about today because there are
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  Speaker 2: some changes that we're have to having to deal with
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  Speaker 2: this year. Let's start by talking about the polling locations
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  Speaker 2: and redistricting changes that are taking place this year.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so in Hamilton County, we consolidated some of our
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  Speaker 3: smaller polling location. So what that means is we eliminated
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  Speaker 3: a small location and moved those voters to a nearby
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  Speaker 3: existing polling location and that might be a little larger
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  Speaker 3: facility that is able to accommodate those voters. And we
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  Speaker 3: did that because we, you know, take a look at
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  Speaker 3: our budget and we see where can we create efficiencies
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  Speaker 3: and and and sort of cut down our spending a
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  Speaker 3: little bit. And we realized that those smaller locations were
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  Speaker 3: just not very efficient. So by consolidating them, we're able.
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  Speaker 3: You know, that's fewer pullworkers that we us to recruit, train, pay,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's it's less equipment voting equipment that needs
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  Speaker 3: to be delivered and tested and prepared. And so we
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  Speaker 3: did this as you know, a way to be be
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  Speaker 3: more efficient. You know, as you just mentioned a really,
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  Speaker 3: voting in person at the Board of Elections is just
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  Speaker 3: increasingly popular, and so we don't that means that we
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  Speaker 3: don't have as many folks voting on election day.
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  Speaker 2: And I understand in getting through the whole process, it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't take that long to get a voter, you know, registered,
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  Speaker 2: and give them their their their ballot and modern technology
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  Speaker 2: and matching signatures with photo ids' it's I understand why
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  Speaker 2: you would consolidate these polling locations. You did that recently.
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  Speaker 2: I had a prior polling location that was at the
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  Speaker 2: Good Shepherd Church and you moved us down around the
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  Speaker 2: corner of Montgomery Montgomery Road, which is equally convenient.
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  Speaker 1: It's not that much.
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  Speaker 2: Farther away, but one stop and it can I think
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  Speaker 2: you got rid of several different polling locations by putting
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  Speaker 2: in a one spot, so it works out fine. No,
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  Speaker 2: not as many poll workers though, that's great because you're
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  Speaker 2: always running short on poll workers, Sherry.
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  Speaker 3: It is difficult to recruit poll workers. We know it's
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  Speaker 3: a long day, so you know, anything we can do
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  Speaker 3: to help with that, we're going to take.
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  Speaker 2: A look at doing fantastic. Now you're going to be
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  Speaker 2: sending you the Bard of Election is going to be
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  Speaker 2: sending a postcard notice about where people should be voting
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  Speaker 2: the current polling location.
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  Speaker 3: That's correct. Those are in the mail stream as we speak,
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  Speaker 3: so voters should be seeing those any day now appear
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  Speaker 3: in their mailboxes. Because we've had these changes. Now, not
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  Speaker 3: everyone's polling location has changed. Actually, only about nine percent
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  Speaker 3: of the voters in Hamilton County will see a change
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  Speaker 3: to their polling location. But we just thought, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we want to make sure every voter is well informed
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  Speaker 3: and there's no confusion. So in the abundance of caution,
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  Speaker 3: we decided we're going to maild every registered voter that notice.
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  Speaker 3: That postcard will tell them they're precinct where they go
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  Speaker 3: to vote in their voting districts. Because something else that
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  Speaker 3: has changed this year is some again not all, but
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  Speaker 3: some voters about twenty three percent will see a change
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  Speaker 3: in their congressional district. The state did some tweaking of
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  Speaker 3: the congressional lines, and again some of those voters will
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  Speaker 3: be voting in a different congressional district this election near.
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  Speaker 3: So we wanted to make sure that voters, every voter
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  Speaker 3: was informed of their voting districts.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I know my listening audience is quite informed on
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  Speaker 2: who they'll be voting for, but that's not always the
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  Speaker 2: case because there's a lot of folks out there that
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  Speaker 2: don't even know who the representative is. So where can
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  Speaker 2: people find this out? Okay, I guess is there still
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  Speaker 2: time to register to vote or update name and address
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  Speaker 2: for the for the primary election this November? I'm sorry
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  Speaker 2: this upcoming election.
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  Speaker 3: Upcoming primary election. Yes, May fifth primary. There is still time,
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  Speaker 3: but the deadline's fast approaching. So in order to register
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  Speaker 3: or update your registration, you need to do so by Monday,
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  Speaker 3: April six, So this coming Monday, the Board of Elections
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  Speaker 3: and really all board of elections across the state are
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  Speaker 3: required to be open until nine pm on that day,
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  Speaker 3: so you can just walk in, go to your Board
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  Speaker 3: of Elections and update. You can also go to your
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  Speaker 3: local BMB local libraries. They all when accept registrations on
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  Speaker 3: that date now they have normal business hours, or you
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  Speaker 3: can join from the convenience of your home and register
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  Speaker 3: to vote online. And you do need to register online
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  Speaker 3: by eleven fifty nine pm on Monday, so.
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  Speaker 2: There's still time and registering online that way is to
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  Speaker 2: go to vote Ohio dot gov.
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  Speaker 1: That's the Secretary of State site.
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  Speaker 3: That's cract. You can go directly to the Secretary of
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  Speaker 3: State's site. If you go to our website, that's fine too.
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  Speaker 3: We provide a link to the Secretary's site.
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  Speaker 2: Which is vote Hamilton Countyohio dot gov.
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  Speaker 1: Do I have that one rite? Serry?
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  Speaker 3: You do? You do very well.
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  Speaker 2: Have gave me such awesome notes, Sherry, I'll admit that
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  Speaker 2: I'm working. I'm working off some notes here. Now let's
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  Speaker 2: go back to poll workers, Sherry, poll and you have
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  Speaker 2: an opportunity here to maybe incentivize some people to come
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  Speaker 2: and work the polls. I'm sure you probably need more
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  Speaker 2: poll workers.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we always need more poll workers. You know, just
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  Speaker 3: in general as a society, we don't seem to pay
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  Speaker 3: as much attention to the primary elections as we do November,
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  Speaker 3: so we don't have as many new poll workers. To
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  Speaker 3: put a shout out to our returning poll workers that
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  Speaker 3: come back election after election. We couldn't do it without them.
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  Speaker 3: But we you know, we always have some drop off
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  Speaker 3: people have vacations, other plans, and so we're always recruiting
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  Speaker 3: new This is a great first time election to come
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  Speaker 3: and work because we do anticipate the lower turnouts. So
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  Speaker 3: come and right work this one. It will be a
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  Speaker 3: good first first time. Get your feet wet, and then
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  Speaker 3: that way you'll be well prepared to work in the
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  Speaker 3: November election where we will see a larger turning out.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yes, and we did compensate. Yeah, we are preparing
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  Speaker 3: for a large turnout in November. Absolutely, but doing it
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  Speaker 3: how pullworkers are compensated for their time two hundred and
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  Speaker 3: twenty five dollars, maybe a little more if you are
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  Speaker 3: a manager in another managing position.
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  Speaker 2: Well, anybody out here in my listening audience who complains
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  Speaker 2: and worries about the integrity of the vote, that this
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  Speaker 2: is exactly how we maintain the integrity of the vote.
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  Speaker 2: You've got Republicans, you've got Democrats, both are writing heard
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  Speaker 2: watching out make sure the rules are followed, they work
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  Speaker 2: out any disputes with disparities, are concerns with the with
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  Speaker 2: the voters. That's the role that you're playing. And it's
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  Speaker 2: such an important and vital civic role. So it's not
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  Speaker 2: about the money. It's about exercising your civic duties.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and you know it really truly is a place,
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  Speaker 3: both the polling places and the Board of Elections office
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  Speaker 3: where Democrats and Republicans come together, and it's easy to
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  Speaker 3: do because we just have a common mission. We don't
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  Speaker 3: we don't bring our politics into the to that space
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  Speaker 3: and said, we just focused on our common mission and
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  Speaker 3: that's conducting free and fair elections in Hamilton County?
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  Speaker 1: Have you?
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  Speaker 2: And I'm reluctant to even ask the question, Shery pull,
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  Speaker 2: But I've got to know because my wife worked the polls,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, years and years and years and years.
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  Speaker 2: Never have I heard a single complaint from her about
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  Speaker 2: one of the the the other side politically being rude
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  Speaker 2: or disrespectful. There never be any fights, outbreaks, no shouting,
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  Speaker 2: no argument. Everybody plays along really really nicely. If there
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  Speaker 2: were a problem, how does that go about being resolved
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  Speaker 2: by the poll workers? Do they contact the Board of
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  Speaker 2: Elections you or they work it out amongst themselves? And
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  Speaker 2: I guess upfront, is that even an issue? Generally speaking?
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  Speaker 3: Generally speaking? Now now you know not, you know, if
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  Speaker 3: we have a poll worker that might be there might
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  Speaker 3: be a disagreement regarding a proper procedure. That can happen
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  Speaker 3: from time to time, especially if there's changes an election administration,
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  Speaker 3: and so we have a help desk set up on
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  Speaker 3: election day that's dedicated to the poll workers. So we
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  Speaker 3: have one that's dedicated to the public, so we have
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  Speaker 3: staff manning that phone line help desk, and then we
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  Speaker 3: have another one that is solely for the poll workers,
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  Speaker 3: and it's made up of our trainers, so our seasonal
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  Speaker 3: workers that train the poll workers for a whole month
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  Speaker 3: before election day then man that help desk along with
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  Speaker 3: our full time staff, so we can quickly answer any
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  Speaker 3: questions or resolve any issues that come up if we're
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  Speaker 3: not able to resolve it on the phone. We also
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  Speaker 3: have staff what we call field troubles So those are
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  Speaker 3: people that have more experienced, more training than the poll
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  Speaker 3: workers and they are assigned to anywhere from maybe five
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  Speaker 3: to seven polling locations, and so they are actually out
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  Speaker 3: in the field all day long in the area of
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  Speaker 3: roaming the polling locations, making sure everything is up and running,
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  Speaker 3: and if we do have a problem, we can dispatch
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  Speaker 3: then quickly to get to the polling place. So we
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  Speaker 3: have many contingencies lined up so that we can make
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  Speaker 3: sure voting goes as smoothly impossible and voters are in
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  Speaker 3: and out quickly while following.
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  Speaker 2: Ohio law, which has always been my experience. It always
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  Speaker 2: works great. Sherry polland Hamlin County Board of Elections, I
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  Speaker 2: can't thank you enough for the work you've done over
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  Speaker 2: the years, and we're reminding my listeners of this important
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  Speaker 2: information this morning. Vote Hamiltoncountyohio dot gov right there, make
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  Speaker 2: sure you're registered. If you're not, vote Ohio dot gov.
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  Speaker 2: It's all linked up for the Hamlin County Bard of Elections.
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  Speaker 2: Sherry polland thanks again for your time today and I
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  Speaker 2: wish you all the success on a smooth May fifth
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  Speaker 2: primary election.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Brian, I appreciate you having me on and
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  Speaker 3: helping us get this message out to voters.
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  Speaker 1: We