Summit County dumps vendor contract after ballot delays [View all]

A private vendor is taking too long to get absentee ballots to voters in Summit County. So election officials will do it themselves.

The four-member board of elections met Tuesday afternoon and decided to end a temporary contract with Cleveland-based Midwest Direct. The marketing firm was hired to handle an initial surge of absentee ballot requests as voters request record numbers of mail-in ballots to avoid crowds on Election Day or at the county early voting center.

Midwest Direct was given a list of 95,000 Summit County voters on Oct. 6, the first day of early voting and, by law, the first day boards could begin sending out ballots. The order for Summit County was nearly double what the company’s CEO said he anticipated. The 19 other Ohio counties, including Cuyahoga and Stark, that contracted his company also doubled or tripled their orders, creating more work than could be handled in a timely fashion.

The issue was compounded by malfunctioning machinery. The result is that voters in some counties, including Summit, may have requested their ballots weeks ago but won't see them until near the end of this second week of early voting.

Read more: https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2020/10/14/election-officials-cancel-ballot-printing-contract-after-delays/5977528002/
(Akron Beacon Journal)