OH: Cuyahoga Cnty Board of Elections announces last minute changes to polling locations in 7 cities

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/political/elections-local/cuyahoga-county-board-of-elections-announces-last-minute-changes-to-polling-locations-in-7-different-cities

CLEVELAND — The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has made changes to polling locations ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections to 29 precincts in seven different municipalities.

Over 24,000 voters are affected by the changes to precincts in Berea, Cleveland, North Olmsted, Solon, South Euclid, University Heights and Warrensville Heights that were announced by the board of elections Thursday afternoon.

Below are complete details on which voting locations have changed from a CCBOE news release:

Berea: Voters in two precincts have been moved out of Berea Branch Library at 7 Berea Commons.

Voters who live in Ward 1, Precinct B and Ward 4, Precinct A will now vote at the Berea Recreation Center at 451 Front Street.

Voters in two precincts have been moved out of the Berea Recreation Center at 451 Front Street.

Voters who live in Ward 5, precincts A and C will now vote at the Berea Branch Library at 7 Berea Commons.

*snip*

[SickOfTheOnePct]

1. WTAF?

This close to an election?

[Cha]

11. I smell Voter Suppression from

Fascist Shitheads

[brooklynite]

31. Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) is run by fascists?

[brooklynite]

34. Before you think up a new conspiracy theory...

The Cuyahoga County BOE is evenly split between Democrats and republicans. https://boe.cuyahogacounty.gov/about-us

[Ms. Toad]

41. In Ohio, at least, all BOEs are. n/t

[Rebl2]

64. Sounds like it to me

[MagickMuffin]

2. Hmmm, I smell shenanigans afoot

Was there an legitimate reason for this last minute move?

[Nevilledog]

4. The election site is conveniently down.

I'm reading that these areas are heavily Dem.

[LisaL]

7. Cuyahoga county is heavily dem.

So, yea, this affects democratic voters most of all.

[ZonkerHarris]

28. and thats why the state will fuck with them

[Ms. Toad]

42. The state didn't make the changes. Cuyahoga County BOE made the changes. n/t

[LisaL]

43. Why are they doing it so close to the election?

It clearly is a very bad idea. I can't even find the changes on their website.

[Ms. Toad]

47. That I don't know.

I was addressing the suggestion that the state was messing with Cuyahoga County because it was democratic. It wasn't the state which messed wtih the precincts at the last minute.

Three are because the polling location were in buildings which are closing or undergoing renovatiosn
Two are returning to the original polling location after being temporarily moved elsewhere while the location was being renovated
One is the original building unable to accommodate changes which were apparently made to precincts in September
One is a scheduling conflict
Two are in the same physical location - but the name of the building changed
One is because the building flooded

I didn't find a date for each of these announcements - or why any non-emergency changes weren't announced early if the announcement yesterday was the first announcement. The map is labeled recent changes - but they might well have been announced as they were made, with a single announcement intended to be a helpful reminder.

I didn't hear any scuttlebut about anticipated changes to polling locations in Cuyahoga County in the boiler room training yesterday.

[LisaL]

48. Well that's the problem.

A lot of people likely have no clue their polling location changed. So they will show up on Tuesday at a wrong location.

[Ms. Toad]

51. It depends on when the changes were actually made.

In previous years a notice sent out about this time in advance of elections was a reminder, not the first notice. I haven't been able to track down whether this is a similar reminder of previously announced information - or new changes.

If it's a heavily democratic precinct, the party will have observers there who can help direct voters to precinct. I'm in the county south, so aside from yesterday's training I don't have substantive information. But not everything that seems initially alarming really is, when the dust settles - and there is a whole lot of alarmism going on here (suggesting the state changed the locations (it is a county level decision), or that they were changed by republicans to suppress the vote (all BOEs in Ohio are evenly split Republican/Democrat), calling for the FBI to investigate, etc. Even whether this is the first notice of the changes is not clear, or just a reminder (as seems their habit from prior years).

People need to chill and get their facts straight before declaring it a 10-alarm fire.

ETA: The changes to Warrensville Heights precincts were made no later than October 11 (Change notice posted on Warrensville Heights City website). I'm not going to keep tracking individual changes - but clearly the notice was a reminder for at least some of the changes (not a brand new announcement).

[ecstatic]

56. I wonder if they had a qOP infiltration like what they've done in Atlanta

Rethugs dominating the election boards in heavily Democratic counties. These people will stop at nothing to get/retain power.

[MagickMuffin]

8. But of course they'd close Democrats polling locations

Just can’t win fare and square. There’s a lot of voters about to be disenfranchised!


I just hope the DOJ gets wind of this

[Ms. Toad]

44. Map of changed polling locations. n/t

https://cuyahoga.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e7007c443f9a4592a2f52849a627a2dc

[questionseverything]

3. Fbi investigate this blatant voter suppression

Changing polling places two days before the election to confuse and suppress the vote

[SickOfTheOnePct]

5. It was four days before the election

but yeah, I agree that this needs to be looked at. Don't know that the FBI needs to get involved at this point, but I would be interested to see what the reasoning was and who made the decision.

[LisaL]

12. Yea, if you are going to change polling location, at least do it in advance so people

know their location is changed. Don't change the location few days before the election. This is just going to cause mass confusion.

[Evolve Dammit]

63. exactly.

[questionseverything]

21. It needs to be the fbi, there's no point in them investigating themselves

[SickOfTheOnePct]

22. I don't expect the BoE to investigate themselves

but are there no state law enforcement agencies?

And looking at the Cuyahoga County elections website, this seems to be a pretty common thing for them to do. Doesn't make it right, but I would prefer to hear what the explanation is before bringing in the FBI.

[LisaL]

27. How do they justify changing polling locations so close to the election?

I would like for them to give an explanation. As it is, I can't even find the announcement on their website.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

40. I don't know how they would justify it either

But when I was looking at the website earlier, looks like they did the same thing during the primary (different part of the county, but same thing - last minute change.)

[SickOfTheOnePct]

45. My bad

It wasn't on their site, it was when I did a Google search re: the changes they announced on 4 Nov.

They announced a change of precincts for the May 3, 2022 election on Apr 27, 2022...WTF?

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/04/cuyahoga-county-boe-announces-polling-location-changes-for-58-precincts-in-may-3-primary.html

[LisaL]

46. The May change was for the primary.

Now they are changing location for the midterms, that they announced on Nov 4.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

49. Yes, I understand that

My point is that they seem to have a habit of changing polling places right before an election, which is obviously not good.

[certainot]

33. the chain of decision on this should be well publicized

[ecstatic]

52. Bingo. I agree 100%.

Republicans are engaging in criminal activity and this needs to be addressed immediately. How many millions of dollars worth of outreach is now wasted, with people having received information on where to vote and how to do it, and NONE of that information is relevant anymore?

Will Google and all the other voter information websites have up to date accurate information now? Will everyone be dependent on the slow and possibly non-working /overloaded Ohio government website?

As far as comments that have pointed the finger at Cuyahoga county, I assume that Cuyahoga has to follow the direction of the governor and legislature. They can't exactly tell state officials to fuck off.

[LisaL]

6. They send letters to affected voters?

I sincerely doubt those letters will even arrive before an election.

[W_HAMILTON]

9. I share your sincere doubt.

As an aside, I live in a red-state hellhole and recently applied for Medicaid benefits for my elderly mother. I officially applied back in August, I'd say. We subsequently received a letter stating that her application had been received and that they needed more information; no problem, I gathered all the information they requested and sent it back. We received another similar letter later on, asking for more information, but this time around, it included some voter registration paperwork to be filled out in case my mom hadn't already been registered to vote. The only problem? When we received the letter, the deadline to register had already passed.

They could have just as easily sent that same voter registration paperwork along with their first letter, but nope. They waited till the second letter, whereby the time we had received it and could have acted on it, the deadline to register had already passed for our state.

Fuck Republicans, anywhere and everywhere.

[Demsrule86]

10. Wonder what internal polls show...they must be very worried. They changed my polling place to

in Bedford for the primaries...not everyone votes in the primaries so I bet there are some that don't know.

[dsc]

13. I grew up in that area and even in the 1980's and 1990's

this BOE was known for being a hot mess.

[LisaL]

14. Clearly it is a mess.

I know that area well. People living in those areas could very well lack transportation. That is if they are even aware their polling place has changed. Who does this a few days before the election? There a very few blue counties in OH, and Cuyahoga is the bluest of them all.

[certainot]

36. dems need to get shuttles/transportation ready for those who don't get the message and name those

responsible

[lindysalsagal]

15. Ok, local Ohio dems: Make sure you've got people at the old polls sending people to the new place

Or Ohio has no chance. This bites, big time. Is this legal?

[certainot]

35. they ought to have limos and busses with certified dem drivers at the old sites shuttling to the

new sites

[ecstatic]

53. Good point. This is truly unbelievable! Nr

[appalachiablue]

16. WTH? Kick

[Baitball Blogger]

17. Not good.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

18. Cheaters gonna cheater....

I wonder about democratic chances after bullshit like this?

[Diamond_Dog]

19. This really infuriates me!

Who is f***ing around with the election here?! This is totally unacceptable!

If these locations were heavy Rethug they’d all be screaming their heads off!

[OhioChick]

20. Anyone still on Twitter, RT this...

These are highly Democratic areas.

[budkin]

23. ALL DEMOCRATIC VOTERS

This is clearly voter suppression.

[BComplex]

24. Tim Ryan needs to be all over this with ads and social media

I hope it pisses off a lot of democrats who were going to sit out this election.

[certainot]

37. good idea, and providing shuttles to the new places

[elias7]

25. As if we're all glued to our TVs for last minute changes. Has to be illegal.

[Sogo]

26. Are there voter hotlines up and running for this election?

Call them!!

[Ninga]

29. Yikes! This can't be good!! What a mess!

[triron]

30. WTF is the reason for this if not nefarious?

[Demsrule86]

32. We are going to need to put people at the polls to direct those who go to the wrong ones...

I am betting the info won't be on the website-assuming the website is even up

[Ms. Toad]

50. As to that, you would be wrong.

Here is the link to the changes (including why the changes were made): https://cuyahoga.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e7007c443f9a4592a2f52849a627a2dc

[ecstatic]

54. It might be working 11pm on Sunday night, but what happens Monday or Tuesday

When more people learn that their polling place has changed? Will the site be able to handle that much traffic? I really hope so but I'm not confident. Hopefully voter information sites are already on top of this and have already downloaded the updated information.

[Ms. Toad]

57. Since some of the changes, at least, are not new changes I suspect this is

a tempest in a teapot.

Cuyahoga County has a history of sending a reminder a few days before the election about all of the changes since the last election. At least one of the changes in the announcement that triggered this firestorm (Warrensville Heights) took place prior to October 11, and is posted not only on the county BOE, but on the city website. I haven't checked them all. I just picked one at random, and confirmed it fell into prior year's patterns of reminding folks of earlier announcements about precinct changes.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

58. Thanks for sharing

From your experienced viewpoint.

Huge difference between 3 days notice and almost a month’s notice.

[LisaL]

60. Per the linked OP article, those were

"last minute" changes.

[Ms. Toad]

65. That is what the linked article says,

But the one I randomly checked was not a last minute change. It was announced in early October. The press doesn't always get things right, and taking a minute or two to check before spreading alarm is helpful.

[Maeve]

38. FWIW, I texted my daughter in South Euclid this info

She checked and her polling place is still the same, but she was glad to have the heads-up. If you know folks who might be affected....

[LisaL]

39. Good idea.

NT

[MustLoveBeagles]

55. This smells

[Thunderbeast]

59. JUST IMPLEMENT VOTE BY MAIL!

This is not exotic rocket science.

The west coast and other states eliminated in-person voting years ago. It is convenient, secure, and not subject to this kind of mischief.

There is no pressure to complete your ballot with hundreds of people waiting in line for your booth. More time to actually consider the down-ballot decisions in the comfort of your home.

[LisaL]

61. OH allows absentee vote by mail.

Obviously not everybody wants to vote by mail.

[FeelingBlue]

62. Can't get on Twitter anymore. 🫤