By SEAN RICE
srice@dailystandard.com
Hundreds of voters across Mercer County will need to report
to new polling places to cast their votes this November, as
county officials made several pre-election changes and preparations
this week.
Also, a couple of candidates’ petitions were not certified
to the November ballot due to mistakes made on nominating documents,
resulting in two candidates from Rockford village and Liberty
Township switching to the write-in candidate procedure.
Rockford Village Clerk Amy Lyons and new candidate for Liberty
Township Trustee Ron Linn did not have the circulator’s
statement signed on their petitions by the time the filing deadline
passed in mid-August. Both candidates met Monday’s write-in
candidate deadline to get on the ballot.
Mercer County Elections Board members also rejected Roger Cooper’s
petition to join the Celina City Schools board of education
race after discovering that he has moved away from his Celina
residence.
Elections Director Toni Slusser said a registered letter sent
to Cooper’s residence in Celina came back with a forwarding
address to Tennessee.
Cooper declared that he was joining the school board race during
the height of debates over closing the district’s Franklin
Elementary School in Montezuma.
With all the school board and township trustee races, there
will be more than 120 local candidates on the ballot across
the county and 19 issues to be decided.
Voters near Coldwater, Rockford, Mendon, the Maria Stein community,
in Jefferson Township and in Burkettsville all have new places
to report to when casting votes on Nov. 4.
The polling place changes are as follows:
• In Butler Township, voters were reporting to the Butler
Township house and the Coldwater firehouse. With the change,
all voters in the township will cast votes in the new municipal
center on Sycamore Street.
• In Marion Township, Marion west voters were voting at
the Catholic Knights of America Hall. Now, all of Marion Township’s
voters are to report to the Knights of St. John Hall on Ohio
119.
• In eastern Jefferson Township, all voters who formerly
voted at the township house will need to report to the Galleria
in Celina, off Wayne Street. That brings the number of precincts
voting at the Galleria to seven.
• Voters in Rockford and Dublin Township, who formerly
voted at Parkway High School, will have to report to the new
community building, near Shane’s Park.
• In Burkettsville, the voting precinct there was combined
with the Granville Township precinct. All those voters are to
report to the St. Henry American Legion. That reduces the county’s
total precincts from 40 to 39.
Amid complaints from resident Bob Nolan about voting in a church,
elections board members moved to allow Slusser to switch the
polling place in Mendon to the public library, if the building
is suitable. Slusser said the voting place for the village was
changed to the United Methodist Church from the village hall
because of issues with handicapped accessibility. Nolan complained
that government voting should not take place in a church.
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