October 30, 2025 • 16 mins
Scott talks with the Director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections Sherry Poland about the projected voter turnout for this year's off year election amid the crime crisis downtown.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't want to be an American.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's got so lun show back on seven hundred Woldy
got election coming.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Up to Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Levy's in a dozen places, local offices, and there's a
big CPS renewal. We've got the mayor's race, of course,
and some twenty six people. It feels like three thousand
people trying to place in the top nine. So twenty
six people looking for nine jobs in a Sea Down
council on this and more. Is the person who controls
it all. That would be the director of the Hamlin
County Board of Elections, Sherry Poland, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
How are you.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm doing well, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You always in a good mood.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
This is like right now I would be just crabby
af you know what I mean, because you got so
much coming at you right now.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
All right, so we'll start with this.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The polls up on Tuesday, six thirty am to seven
thirty I believe correct, that's.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Crack six thirty am to seven thirty pm.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Don't forget the driver's license.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
That's correct, that's correct. A few years ago, Hi Ohio
changed these acceptable forms of ID for voting, so in
order to vote in person, you do need to have
a State of Ohio driver's license or a State of
Ohio identification card, or a passport or military ID. So
make sure it's not expired. Make sure it's up to
(01:14):
date before you come to the polls.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Okay, I bring one that's expired, I forget it. What happens,
I can vote, no problem.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
If you do not have an acceptable form of ID,
you will be issued what we call a provisional ballot.
It's the same ballot that's issued to every other voter
you would market, but instead of scanning it and having
it counted election night, it's placed inside what we call
a provisional envelope and that has your identifying information on it.
(01:43):
You fill that out after election day. Bipartisan teams verify
the information on the envelope, and the voter has four
days after election day, so that's the Saturday after election
day to come to the Board of Elections and present
an acceptable form of ID. If they do, then that
ballot will be added to the official count, which occurs
(02:05):
a few weeks after election day. I do want to
note that if you're in that, find yourself in that
situation right now. So your driver's license or state idea
is expired. Go to the BMV before you come to
the polls. That interim documentation that the BMB gives you
while your identification is being mailed to you, that interim
idea that's good for driving purposes, it's also acceptable for voting.
(02:29):
So if you have that, you will not have to
vote provisionally.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, got it. Let's talk about the early voting numbers.
How early voting the absentee ballots, and how does the
request compared to previous elections and what does that tell
you about what's going to happen Tuesday?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, So absent te voting, which is that umbrella that
contains both voting by mail and early in person voting.
We're pretty much right on track as to the twenty
twenty one election. So four years ago, once again Cincinnati
was voting council members, mayor this election, that turnout is
tracking right on pace with that twenty twenty one election.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Okay, compare that to like the presidential cycle, the last
presidential election, so one twenty percent.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay, what are we talking?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, so in twenty twenty one, county wide, we saw
a twenty six percent turnout. City Cincinnati is slightly lower
in twenty five percent. Compare that to a presidential where
we see a seventy two percent turnout. So unfortunately, we
don't see the turnout in odd numbered years elections than
(03:36):
we do in the even years. But you know, we
it's kind of hard for us in the business to
understand why that happens, because we are voting for our
local elected officials. These are the folks that really have
an impact on our day to day lives. So I
encourage everyone if you haven't voted yet, voted yet early
voting in person is still ongoing through Sunday, and then
(04:00):
you know your polls will be open in your community
on election Day, get out and vote.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I would say it's simply but it's marketing, I think, right,
because in a presidential cycle, it's in your face all
the time.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You're getting tons of robo calls.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Social media feed is packed with political messages and bickering.
You turn on a streaming show or TV and you're
inundated with political messages. President presidential visis front and center,
and I think it just the marketing drives more people
to polls.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
That's my theory.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah. Absolutely. Something else we see is that you know,
sometimes controversial issues will bring voters out to the polls.
So two years ago, twenty twenty three odd year, you know,
election again looking electing local officials, we saw a higher turnout.
I think we saw a forty eight percent turnout in
twenty twenty three. But that your abortion, marijuana. We're both
(04:49):
on the ballot, So the issues can also drive out turnout.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, yeah, And I think that's probably a good point too,
is the more globally issued. That's a state issue. But
everyone's like, okay, I can identify with that. You start
talking about millage and levees and school boards and dogcatchers,
people's eyes glaze over, rightly or wrongly. I think that's
how we're programms. Like I got my ballot where we
just moved to and looked at and were like three
or four things on there, and most of them were
fairly inane. There's a levee issue which I voted on,
(05:15):
but the other ones are like, I don't know who
these people are. Did some research found out some of them?
Other ones I just and the ones I looked at
when I have no idea who they are. I can't
find any information on them. I just left blank, which
is the same.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
You kid, you can absolutely skip the contest. That is
your right to do that. But I think you bring
up another very good point, and that is to become
an informed voter. And it's easy to do if you
vote by mail, because that ballot is mail to your house.
You can fit take your time to the research. However,
for this election, voting by mail has ended. That ended
(05:49):
on Tuesday. Anyone who wished to vote by mail had
to submit an application to the board by this past Tuesday,
Chamber twenty, so voting by mail has ended. But what
you can do if you are going to vote in
person then is go on to our website vote Hamilton County,
Ohio dot gov. Vote Hamilton County, Ohio dot gov. Go
onto our website and you can look up your sample
ballot on our website so it looks almost identical to
(06:13):
the ballot you'll receive when you walk into the polling place.
So reviewed ahead of time, do your research like you did,
and become an informed voter so there's no surprises when
you walk into the polling place. You can go in
knowing how you want to cast your ballot.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Scott's Onland with Sherry Poland she's the director Hamilin County
Board of Elections. Got the election coming up Tuesday. If
you're in person, at six point thirty relative to that, Sherry,
you know, you mentioned the twenty right around twenty six
percent turnout right around that maybe twenty five one.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Out every four voters in the city.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And sometimes issues will bring out more people on off
year elections, as this one is because you don't have
the hype of the presidential I understand that, and I
think people are just fatigued too going I'm going to
take a knee here this year.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I don't need to show.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
But I thought, you know, with the crime issue in Cincinnati,
and I know you can't get in and that's not
your area concern, you're just managing the election. But I thought,
for sure, with the interesting crime downtown and the number
of people running for counsel, that would I get I guess,
maybe drive more people out.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
That surprised me, you know, and it's still a possibility
on election day. You know, the majority of voters in
Hamilton County still choose to vote on election day, so
you know, we might see that higher turnout come. Then.
You know, I don't have a crystal ball that tells
me that, But well I'll find out on Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, exact, we'll find out together on Tuesday. Regarding that too,
how many more people this year and I'm sure you're
looking at the trend and it's just align almost straight upward.
Would guess the number of people taking advantage of the
very generous way we can vote early in the Buckeye State,
where like me, I just would rather have it mailed
to my house. I'd get a cup of coffee, sit
there on a Sunday afternoon morning, I guess before football
(07:49):
and figure out who I'm and what I'm voting for,
do a little research. Whereas typically you don't have that
kind of time. You feel pressured if you're standing there
in queue, and then you know, getting into the booth
itself to actually punch the draw the little circles. I guess,
not punch the card, but draw the circle. This is
easier to know how many more people are taking advantge
are we see that trend continue upward?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
What we're seeing continue to trend upward is the early
in person voting. It's just become you know, extremely extremely
popular in Hamilton County. It started when we moved the
board of elections away from downtown to our current facility
in Norwood. You know, it's more centrally located in the
county that we serve. We have you know, a large
(08:31):
amount of free public parking, and that's that is what's
trending upward, is that early in person vote voting every
election we outpass the last similar election. When it comes
to that, voting by mail is you know, sort of
holding study or maybe dropping slightly. You know, during twenty twenty,
(08:51):
we had many many people vote by mail, obviously due
to the pandemic, and we thought that perhaps that trend
would continue because now we have so many people that
were never exposed to voting by mail before, they might
have found it to be very convenient. But that didn't happen.
After twenty twenty, we went back to the majority of
(09:13):
Hamiltons County voters casting the ballot the traditional way at
the polling place on.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Election I hate that's happening.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I don't know, you know, I think one way. You know,
we live in the Midwest. We like our traditions. You know,
I know a lot of people that say to me,
you know, no, I go into my polling place on
election day. That's a sacred day. To me, that's what
I do and I'm not going to deviate, you know,
from that, which you know, I think is interesting. Then
we have a lot of people with the early voting.
(09:42):
You know, we have voting for almost a month at
our Early Vote Center, and it is and people find
it to be, you know, extremely convenient. I will note
obviously on election day you must go to your assigned
polling place, which is based on where you live, whereas
at the Early Vote Center, you know, anyone who lives
of matter where you live in Hamilton Counties, your registered voter,
(10:03):
you can come and vote the Early voat Center. So
many times we see families coming together so where they
might be you know, assigned to different polling places because
they don't all live, you know, in the same home.
We see a lot of people sort of making a
family event and coming together the Early Votes Center, then
going going out to eat or something like that afterwards,
or sort of the stories that we that we hear
(10:24):
and again it's it's extremely convenient. And the hours that
we have I will note we're open today and tomorrow
from seven thirty am to seven thirty pm Saturday, eight
am to four pm. Early voting ends on Sunday, and
it's the shortest hours we have by state law. We're
open from one pm to five pm on Sunday, so
(10:44):
still plenty of time to come on and vote early
in person at the.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Board Cherry Poland with all the event of early voting,
and you know, they're still traditional south there. I don't
know how young people do that, because you know young people,
they'll probably mail it in. I mean, if you could
text your vote in the all over that I would guess.
Maybe I'd be that way too, I suppose. But how
is this changing how you tabulate the elections? And normally
you're sitting around waiting for the results to come in.
(11:09):
Sometimes it's the middle of the night when they come.
You know, if you're voting early, either in person, by
mail or however, you have those votes and of course
you have them in hand and you're ready to release
those results the minute the polls closed. So you got
a lot of stuff done up front, so to speak.
How does that changed your job and also when the
results come out, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
A great question. You know, in the state of Ohio,
we are permitted election officials are permitted to process those
vote by mail ballots as soon as they come in.
You have a handful of states that won't allow the
election officials to begin those acts of preparation until election warning.
But in Ohio, we can verify all the information that's
(11:49):
contained on the envelope ahead of time as soon as
we receive it. Once we determine that that vote by
mail ballot is accepted for counting, we remove the ballot.
It scanned, it's not tabulated, it's scanned, and the cast
vote record is what we call it is stored. And
then the ballot is stored in a secure facility here
(12:09):
at the Ware of Elections. Then on election night, as
soon as the polls closed at seven point thirty one PM,
we then hit the tabulate button, so the no ballots
are counted until the polls closed. But we are permitted
to do those acts of preparation.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, scam, get him ready to go, so that makes
the results come in here. And that's a big question here,
Sherry Poland. Is it's not about you know, free and
open elections and exercising your constitutional right to cast your
vote one person, one voice, and one vote, as the
case may be.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
This is not about that.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
This is about Brian Combs, our assistant news director, wants
to know what time he can go home on Tuesday,
Tuesday night.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Again, I don't have a crystal ball that would that
would tell me that we hope, always hope at one
hundred to be one hundred percent report before eleven pm,
you know. And again just to talk a little bit
more about the election night count and how that works.
We mentioned the early votes that's early in person and
(13:11):
by mail are the very first ballots that are tabulated
and released on election night, and then it's a little
bit of a waiting game for those ballots to come
in from the polling places all across Hamilton County. And
that's because our voting equipment is not connected to the internet.
In fact, that doesn't they don't even have the capability
of being connected to the internet. So the physical delivery
(13:33):
of the ballots and the equipment from the bipartisan poll
workers to the bipartisan teams at the Board of Elections,
so it takes a little time for them to come in.
So we'll usually we have a few early pickup locations
will actually send teams out from the board so we
can have some results trickling in early. You know, usually
(13:54):
between eight thirty and nine, but the majority of those
ballots arrives at the board around so that's typically when
we start to see you know, most of the results
come in between nine thirty and ten thirty, and again
we always hope to be at one hundred percent, you know,
before before eleven o'clock. We know it's a long day.
We know everyone is anxiously awaiting and constantly hitting that
(14:17):
refresh button. But you know, a latch and officials will
never trade you know, security and accuracy for speed, So
I'll just have to be a little bit patient to
make sure their results coming in are accuracy.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I know you have last minute preparations. You got to
go check the tires, make sure the dipstick has oil
in it. You got to go make sure the voting
machines everything's ready to go. You're a busy lady. I
always appreciate it talking to you and enjoy our conversations
and appreciate what you do for Democracy's an important thing,
even especially in off years when you have lower turnout
and probably fewer workers to deal with, et cetera. So
(14:49):
all the best, Sherry poland thanks again for coming on
the show. How about a nice quiet Tuesday. Does that
sound good?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
That sounds wonderful to me.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
It does. You've seen some stuff, yeah, we have.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But we have a great team here at the Board
of Election. I cannot praise the staff here and now
if it's truly a place where Democrats and the Republicans
come together to do the people's work. So got to
have a shout out.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
To them all the best.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Cherry, be well, good luck, Thank you, Sherry poland that
as you're a director Hamiley County Board of Elections and
love it.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
She's great.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
She's just a great personnel, a great person and really
cares about her job and the integrity of the election
above all else. So six thirty am Tuesday, if you're
an in person voter, go get it done. If you
already did it, like me, just sit back and wait
for results to come in. And I have no idea
what to tell Brian Combs. This is all about Colms
is like, Hey, you're talking to Sherry Paul. Ask her
when she thinks I can go home. It's all about him.
(15:45):
You know, this democracy of two hundred and fifty years
still a long time, and we tabulate the elections and
sometimes they're contentious, sometimes we fight two thousand comes to mind,
and basically they're in the ought. So we had a
lot of contentious elections. Along came her voting kind of
eased the process, made a little bit easier. Uh you know,
it wasn't like three or four o'clock in the morning.
(16:06):
There weren't all these few challenges and stuff like that,
especially on off here. We're not going to get that
all Brian Colembs wants to know, despite all of that history,
despite it being the cornerstone of our constitution of our
whal life here in America, one person, one vote. All
Brian Colmbs cares about is what time he can go
home and have a beer. Scott's Loan Show, seven hundred
(16:29):
W World
Don't want to be an American.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's got so lun show back on seven hundred Woldy
got election coming.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Up to Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Levy's in a dozen places, local offices, and there's a
big CPS renewal. We've got the mayor's race, of course,
and some twenty six people. It feels like three thousand
people trying to place in the top nine. So twenty
six people looking for nine jobs in a Sea Down
council on this and more. Is the person who controls
it all. That would be the director of the Hamlin
County Board of Elections, Sherry Poland, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
How are you.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm doing well, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You always in a good mood.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
This is like right now I would be just crabby
af you know what I mean, because you got so
much coming at you right now.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
All right, so we'll start with this.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The polls up on Tuesday, six thirty am to seven
thirty I believe correct, that's.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Crack six thirty am to seven thirty pm.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Don't forget the driver's license.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
That's correct, that's correct. A few years ago, Hi Ohio
changed these acceptable forms of ID for voting, so in
order to vote in person, you do need to have
a State of Ohio driver's license or a State of
Ohio identification card, or a passport or military ID. So
make sure it's not expired. Make sure it's up to
(01:14):
date before you come to the polls.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Okay, I bring one that's expired, I forget it. What happens,
I can vote, no problem.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
If you do not have an acceptable form of ID,
you will be issued what we call a provisional ballot.
It's the same ballot that's issued to every other voter
you would market, but instead of scanning it and having
it counted election night, it's placed inside what we call
a provisional envelope and that has your identifying information on it.
(01:43):
You fill that out after election day. Bipartisan teams verify
the information on the envelope, and the voter has four
days after election day, so that's the Saturday after election
day to come to the Board of Elections and present
an acceptable form of ID. If they do, then that
ballot will be added to the official count, which occurs
(02:05):
a few weeks after election day. I do want to
note that if you're in that, find yourself in that
situation right now. So your driver's license or state idea
is expired. Go to the BMV before you come to
the polls. That interim documentation that the BMB gives you
while your identification is being mailed to you, that interim
idea that's good for driving purposes, it's also acceptable for voting.
(02:29):
So if you have that, you will not have to
vote provisionally.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, got it. Let's talk about the early voting numbers.
How early voting the absentee ballots, and how does the
request compared to previous elections and what does that tell
you about what's going to happen Tuesday?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, So absent te voting, which is that umbrella that
contains both voting by mail and early in person voting.
We're pretty much right on track as to the twenty
twenty one election. So four years ago, once again Cincinnati
was voting council members, mayor this election, that turnout is
tracking right on pace with that twenty twenty one election.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Okay, compare that to like the presidential cycle, the last
presidential election, so one twenty percent.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Okay, what are we talking?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, so in twenty twenty one, county wide, we saw
a twenty six percent turnout. City Cincinnati is slightly lower
in twenty five percent. Compare that to a presidential where
we see a seventy two percent turnout. So unfortunately, we
don't see the turnout in odd numbered years elections than
(03:36):
we do in the even years. But you know, we
it's kind of hard for us in the business to
understand why that happens, because we are voting for our
local elected officials. These are the folks that really have
an impact on our day to day lives. So I
encourage everyone if you haven't voted yet, voted yet early
voting in person is still ongoing through Sunday, and then
(04:00):
you know your polls will be open in your community
on election Day, get out and vote.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I would say it's simply but it's marketing, I think, right,
because in a presidential cycle, it's in your face all
the time.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You're getting tons of robo calls.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Social media feed is packed with political messages and bickering.
You turn on a streaming show or TV and you're
inundated with political messages. President presidential visis front and center,
and I think it just the marketing drives more people
to polls.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
That's my theory.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah. Absolutely. Something else we see is that you know,
sometimes controversial issues will bring voters out to the polls.
So two years ago, twenty twenty three odd year, you know,
election again looking electing local officials, we saw a higher turnout.
I think we saw a forty eight percent turnout in
twenty twenty three. But that your abortion, marijuana. We're both
(04:49):
on the ballot, So the issues can also drive out turnout.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, yeah, And I think that's probably a good point too,
is the more globally issued. That's a state issue. But
everyone's like, okay, I can identify with that. You start
talking about millage and levees and school boards and dogcatchers,
people's eyes glaze over, rightly or wrongly. I think that's
how we're programms. Like I got my ballot where we
just moved to and looked at and were like three
or four things on there, and most of them were
fairly inane. There's a levee issue which I voted on,
(05:15):
but the other ones are like, I don't know who
these people are. Did some research found out some of them?
Other ones I just and the ones I looked at
when I have no idea who they are. I can't
find any information on them. I just left blank, which
is the same.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
You kid, you can absolutely skip the contest. That is
your right to do that. But I think you bring
up another very good point, and that is to become
an informed voter. And it's easy to do if you
vote by mail, because that ballot is mail to your house.
You can fit take your time to the research. However,
for this election, voting by mail has ended. That ended
(05:49):
on Tuesday. Anyone who wished to vote by mail had
to submit an application to the board by this past Tuesday,
Chamber twenty, so voting by mail has ended. But what
you can do if you are going to vote in
person then is go on to our website vote Hamilton County,
Ohio dot gov. Vote Hamilton County, Ohio dot gov. Go
onto our website and you can look up your sample
ballot on our website so it looks almost identical to
(06:13):
the ballot you'll receive when you walk into the polling place.
So reviewed ahead of time, do your research like you did,
and become an informed voter so there's no surprises when
you walk into the polling place. You can go in
knowing how you want to cast your ballot.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Scott's Onland with Sherry Poland she's the director Hamilin County
Board of Elections. Got the election coming up Tuesday. If
you're in person, at six point thirty relative to that, Sherry,
you know, you mentioned the twenty right around twenty six
percent turnout right around that maybe twenty five one.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Out every four voters in the city.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And sometimes issues will bring out more people on off
year elections, as this one is because you don't have
the hype of the presidential I understand that, and I
think people are just fatigued too going I'm going to
take a knee here this year.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I don't need to show.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
But I thought, you know, with the crime issue in Cincinnati,
and I know you can't get in and that's not
your area concern, you're just managing the election. But I thought,
for sure, with the interesting crime downtown and the number
of people running for counsel, that would I get I guess,
maybe drive more people out.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
That surprised me, you know, and it's still a possibility
on election day. You know, the majority of voters in
Hamilton County still choose to vote on election day, so
you know, we might see that higher turnout come. Then.
You know, I don't have a crystal ball that tells
me that, But well I'll find out on Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, exact, we'll find out together on Tuesday. Regarding that too,
how many more people this year and I'm sure you're
looking at the trend and it's just align almost straight upward.
Would guess the number of people taking advantage of the
very generous way we can vote early in the Buckeye State,
where like me, I just would rather have it mailed
to my house. I'd get a cup of coffee, sit
there on a Sunday afternoon morning, I guess before football
(07:49):
and figure out who I'm and what I'm voting for,
do a little research. Whereas typically you don't have that
kind of time. You feel pressured if you're standing there
in queue, and then you know, getting into the booth
itself to actually punch the draw the little circles. I guess,
not punch the card, but draw the circle. This is
easier to know how many more people are taking advantge
are we see that trend continue upward?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
What we're seeing continue to trend upward is the early
in person voting. It's just become you know, extremely extremely
popular in Hamilton County. It started when we moved the
board of elections away from downtown to our current facility
in Norwood. You know, it's more centrally located in the
county that we serve. We have you know, a large
(08:31):
amount of free public parking, and that's that is what's
trending upward, is that early in person vote voting every
election we outpass the last similar election. When it comes
to that, voting by mail is you know, sort of
holding study or maybe dropping slightly. You know, during twenty twenty,
(08:51):
we had many many people vote by mail, obviously due
to the pandemic, and we thought that perhaps that trend
would continue because now we have so many people that
were never exposed to voting by mail before, they might
have found it to be very convenient. But that didn't happen.
After twenty twenty, we went back to the majority of
(09:13):
Hamiltons County voters casting the ballot the traditional way at
the polling place on.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Election I hate that's happening.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I don't know, you know, I think one way. You know,
we live in the Midwest. We like our traditions. You know,
I know a lot of people that say to me,
you know, no, I go into my polling place on
election day. That's a sacred day. To me, that's what
I do and I'm not going to deviate, you know,
from that, which you know, I think is interesting. Then
we have a lot of people with the early voting.
(09:42):
You know, we have voting for almost a month at
our Early Vote Center, and it is and people find
it to be, you know, extremely convenient. I will note
obviously on election day you must go to your assigned
polling place, which is based on where you live, whereas
at the Early Vote Center, you know, anyone who lives
of matter where you live in Hamilton Counties, your registered voter,
(10:03):
you can come and vote the Early voat Center. So
many times we see families coming together so where they
might be you know, assigned to different polling places because
they don't all live, you know, in the same home.
We see a lot of people sort of making a
family event and coming together the Early Votes Center, then
going going out to eat or something like that afterwards,
or sort of the stories that we that we hear
(10:24):
and again it's it's extremely convenient. And the hours that
we have I will note we're open today and tomorrow
from seven thirty am to seven thirty pm Saturday, eight
am to four pm. Early voting ends on Sunday, and
it's the shortest hours we have by state law. We're
open from one pm to five pm on Sunday, so
(10:44):
still plenty of time to come on and vote early
in person at the.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Board Cherry Poland with all the event of early voting,
and you know, they're still traditional south there. I don't
know how young people do that, because you know young people,
they'll probably mail it in. I mean, if you could
text your vote in the all over that I would guess.
Maybe I'd be that way too, I suppose. But how
is this changing how you tabulate the elections? And normally
you're sitting around waiting for the results to come in.
(11:09):
Sometimes it's the middle of the night when they come.
You know, if you're voting early, either in person, by
mail or however, you have those votes and of course
you have them in hand and you're ready to release
those results the minute the polls closed. So you got
a lot of stuff done up front, so to speak.
How does that changed your job and also when the
results come out, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
A great question. You know, in the state of Ohio,
we are permitted election officials are permitted to process those
vote by mail ballots as soon as they come in.
You have a handful of states that won't allow the
election officials to begin those acts of preparation until election warning.
But in Ohio, we can verify all the information that's
(11:49):
contained on the envelope ahead of time as soon as
we receive it. Once we determine that that vote by
mail ballot is accepted for counting, we remove the ballot.
It scanned, it's not tabulated, it's scanned, and the cast
vote record is what we call it is stored. And
then the ballot is stored in a secure facility here
(12:09):
at the Ware of Elections. Then on election night, as
soon as the polls closed at seven point thirty one PM,
we then hit the tabulate button, so the no ballots
are counted until the polls closed. But we are permitted
to do those acts of preparation.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, scam, get him ready to go, so that makes
the results come in here. And that's a big question here,
Sherry Poland. Is it's not about you know, free and
open elections and exercising your constitutional right to cast your
vote one person, one voice, and one vote, as the
case may be.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
This is not about that.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
This is about Brian Combs, our assistant news director, wants
to know what time he can go home on Tuesday,
Tuesday night.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Again, I don't have a crystal ball that would that
would tell me that we hope, always hope at one
hundred to be one hundred percent report before eleven pm,
you know. And again just to talk a little bit
more about the election night count and how that works.
We mentioned the early votes that's early in person and
(13:11):
by mail are the very first ballots that are tabulated
and released on election night, and then it's a little
bit of a waiting game for those ballots to come
in from the polling places all across Hamilton County. And
that's because our voting equipment is not connected to the internet.
In fact, that doesn't they don't even have the capability
of being connected to the internet. So the physical delivery
(13:33):
of the ballots and the equipment from the bipartisan poll
workers to the bipartisan teams at the Board of Elections,
so it takes a little time for them to come in.
So we'll usually we have a few early pickup locations
will actually send teams out from the board so we
can have some results trickling in early. You know, usually
(13:54):
between eight thirty and nine, but the majority of those
ballots arrives at the board around so that's typically when
we start to see you know, most of the results
come in between nine thirty and ten thirty, and again
we always hope to be at one hundred percent, you know,
before before eleven o'clock. We know it's a long day.
We know everyone is anxiously awaiting and constantly hitting that
(14:17):
refresh button. But you know, a latch and officials will
never trade you know, security and accuracy for speed, So
I'll just have to be a little bit patient to
make sure their results coming in are accuracy.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I know you have last minute preparations. You got to
go check the tires, make sure the dipstick has oil
in it. You got to go make sure the voting
machines everything's ready to go. You're a busy lady. I
always appreciate it talking to you and enjoy our conversations
and appreciate what you do for Democracy's an important thing,
even especially in off years when you have lower turnout
and probably fewer workers to deal with, et cetera. So
(14:49):
all the best, Sherry poland thanks again for coming on
the show. How about a nice quiet Tuesday. Does that
sound good?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
That sounds wonderful to me.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
It does. You've seen some stuff, yeah, we have.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But we have a great team here at the Board
of Election. I cannot praise the staff here and now
if it's truly a place where Democrats and the Republicans
come together to do the people's work. So got to
have a shout out.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
To them all the best.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Cherry, be well, good luck, Thank you, Sherry poland that
as you're a director Hamiley County Board of Elections and
love it.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
She's great.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
She's just a great personnel, a great person and really
cares about her job and the integrity of the election
above all else. So six thirty am Tuesday, if you're
an in person voter, go get it done. If you
already did it, like me, just sit back and wait
for results to come in. And I have no idea
what to tell Brian Combs. This is all about Colms
is like, Hey, you're talking to Sherry Paul. Ask her
when she thinks I can go home. It's all about him.
(15:45):
You know, this democracy of two hundred and fifty years
still a long time, and we tabulate the elections and
sometimes they're contentious, sometimes we fight two thousand comes to mind,
and basically they're in the ought. So we had a
lot of contentious elections. Along came her voting kind of
eased the process, made a little bit easier. Uh you know,
it wasn't like three or four o'clock in the morning.
(16:06):
There weren't all these few challenges and stuff like that,
especially on off here. We're not going to get that
all Brian Colembs wants to know, despite all of that history,
despite it being the cornerstone of our constitution of our
whal life here in America, one person, one vote. All
Brian Colmbs cares about is what time he can go
home and have a beer. Scott's Loan Show, seven hundred
(16:29):
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