The Williams County Board of Elections told county commissioners it has hired Michelle Hendricks as deputy director and is asking the county for help recruiting poll workers and monitoring upcoming software renewals.
The update, delivered during the commissioner's regular session, covered petition signature rules, routine voter-list maintenance and staffing needs that the board said affect its ability to run elections.
Board of Elections staff said, “We did hire Michelle Hendricks, as our deputy director. So welcome,” and noted Hendricks started after the May election. The staff member described day-to-day duties including receiving petitions from townships, checking signatures and processing voter-list changes.
The board explained petition rules it receives from the Ohio Secretary of State: candidates may submit up to roughly double the required signatures (the board described a 10-signature requirement allowing “up to 20”) but not unlimited multiples; the office provides a packet and the online guidance from the Secretary of State explains those limits. The board also described monthly “speed files” they receive from the Secretary of State to remove deceased voters who died out of state and encouraged families to bring death certificates so staff can remove names.
Commissioners and board staff discussed poll-worker recruitment. The board said poll workers must be at least 18 and there must be representatives from each major party at polling places. Staff said they have reached out to government classes and community-service programs and urged commissioners and county leaders to help recruit students, saying the technology used today—iPads and similar devices—makes the work more accessible to younger volunteers.
A commissioner warned the group to track vendor contracts and software expirations: “we had kind of a surprise bill come up a couple years ago for about a half a million dollars for your software update,” and asked the elections office and county staff to flag renewals well in advance so those costs are not unexpected.
The board confirmed Hart is the vendor for voting equipment and that they have regular points of contact at the state if questions arise. No formal action or appropriation was taken at the meeting.
The commissioners encouraged the board to continue outreach to schools and to alert the county when they need poll-worker help so the commissioners can assist with recruitment.