COLUMBUS, Ohio — There will be fewer locations to vote when Franklin County voters head to the polls for the special election on Aug. 8.
The Franklin County Board of Elections says there will be 25 fewer polling locations because some of the polling places had scheduled previous work or church events that could not be moved.
Aaron Sellers, a spokesperson for the Franklin County Board of Elections, says the August election will have 282 polling locations compared to 307 that are normally available.
The August special election was approved in May by state lawmakers and certified by the Ohio Supreme Court two weeks ago.
The election appears to be sparking more people to vote for the first time.
Data from the Franklin County Board of Elections shows a record number of first-time voters from January to May compared to the prior year. So far, the month of June did not see an increase in new voter registrations with only 3,070 new registered voters compared to 7,951 last June.
The August election in Ohio is expected to be closely watched nationally as Ohioans will vote on whether to raise the threshold from a simple majority to 60% to change the state’s constitution.
The measure is an attempt to make it harder for voters to pass an abortion-rights amendment that is in the plans for November. Issue 1 would modify the requirements for the petition process for proposals to change the constitution, requiring no less than 5% of the electors represented from every county of the state to sign a petition. Currently, signatures must be gathered for only 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Additionally, the initiative would eliminate the 10-day period that petitioners are granted to replace any invalid signatures. Notably, Issue 1 only applies to constitutional changes, and the initiated petition process to amend Ohio law remains unchanged.
Finding the poll workers to assist voters on election day remains a challenge.
“Our goal is to recruit 5,000 poll workers for the August election. We are a little above 50% of placement for election day. We are confident we will get to where we need to be,” Sellers said.