By Christopher Gillett
Voter registration for the 2022 midterm elections is over, however, for some voters who cannot make it in person on Election Day, there are other options like absentee voting and early voting.
For those interested in voting early in Mahoning County, visit the Board of Elections at 345 Oak Hill Ave. in Youngstown with proper identification. Those interested in an absentee ballot can go to the same address or to the Mahoning County Board of Elections website. After completing an absentee ballot, it can be dropped off at the mailbox outside of the Board of Elections. There are also guides at the William F. Maag Jr. Library.
Students registered in Ohio can find voting precincts at the Ohio precinct and polling location website or go to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website and click on your county. Those who registered at Youngstown State University will either be at First Presbyterian Church on 201 Wick Ave. just south of the YSU Campus Lofts, or at the Eugenia Atkinson Recreation Center on 903 Otis Ave. in Youngstown. To find out which one, go to one of the above websites.
Other states have individual websites, which can be found through the federal government’s website.
Ohio is using new congressional districts because of the 2020 census. According to a map from CNN, Mahoning County is now at the northern edge of Ohio’s sixth congressional district stretching south along the West Virginia border, ending at Washington County.
Voters can also participate in the election through working at the polls. Thomas McCabe, the director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections, started working at the polls when he was a political science major at YSU. He explained how students can become poll workers.
“If you want to be a poll worker for Mahoning County, we hire 848 poll workers for Election Day and half of those are Republicans and half of those are Democrats. We’re always looking for younger people to get involved within the system,” McCabe said.
Photo by Christopher Gillett / The Jambar
Poll workers will be required to work the whole voting day from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and will make around $150 for the day. The Board of Elections will also write notices for professors that students will be working the polls on Election Day. If interested, call the Mahoning County Board of Elections at (330)783-2474.
Some students are poll watching for Election Day. Penny Wells, Executive Director of Mahoning Sojourn to the Past, helps with voter registration and poll watching. Wells said poll watching acts as a form of voter protection.
“Poll watching is simply people who go and observe [voting],” Wells said. “They stay mainly on the outside to make sure that nobody is intimidated, nobody is threatened in any way. [It is] totally nonviolent, just giving a person to call if they see anything that seems irregular.”
Britney Bailey, a YSU senior general studies and business major, said what got her interested in poll watching.
“On [the] YSU campus, I [have] helped registered people to vote for the upcoming Election every spring and every fall and I want to get more involved in it. I wanted to see if I could work the polls at some point and poll watching or monitoring is something I can do there,” Bailey said.
Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past does activism through voter registration and educating students on the civil rights movement. To learn more about the organization, go to its website.
If interested in becoming involved with the Sojourn Project, contact Penny Wells at [email protected].
