Lake County Board of Elections…voter database updates

By Contributing Writer on June 6, 2022

June 6, 2022

LFC Comments by Brian Massie, Lake County voter

We were interested to see how much the Lake County voter database changed because of the May primary elections. Here is a comparison between the Board of Elections database on May 3, 2022 and June 4, 2022:

Party Affiliation	May 3, 2022	June 4, 2022	Inc / (Dec)	% Inc. (Dec)
Republican	18,491	18,461	(30)	(.2%)
Democrat	20.405	20,366	(39)	(.2%)
No Party	121,720	122,065	345	.3%
Libertarian	117	117	—	—
Total Registered Voters	160,733	161,009	276	(.1%)
Total Lake County Population % Registered	230,290 69.8%	230,290 69.9%

We sent an email to Mr. Ross McDonald, Director of the Lake County Board of Elections. We asked if the same number of poll workers will be needed for the August 2nd Primary Election, and how and when will the voter database be update to reflect the voter’s party affiliation? Here are his responses:

Response from Ross McDonald, Lake County Board of Election Director

(1) Yes, we will need the same number of precinct election officials for the August 2 Primary Election.

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[LFC Comments: They can always use additional poll workers, so if you would like to give back to your community and help our stellar Board of Elections staff, please consider volunteering.

Become a PEO (Public Election Official)

Precinct Election Official Recruiters
Megan Elek

(440) 350-2412
megan.elek@lakecountyohio.gov

Jessica Salesky

(440) 350-2873
jessica.salesky@lakecountyohio.gov ]

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(2) Regarding your affiliation: due to the second, unplanned primary election, the Secretary of State issued the following guidance concerning the party-affiliation update process:

Hold on Party Affiliation Reset

Each board should update a voter’s party affiliation when updating voter history for the May 3, 2022 primary. However, a board must wait until after the primary election for General Assembly and State Central Committee to perform the party affiliation reset that removes affiliation for a voter who has not voted in a partisan primary in this year’s primaries or two preceding calendar years’ partisan primaries.

The reason you’re seeing the increase in “no party” voter registration counts is due to our resuming of voter registration entries. As you know, voter registration is on hold 30 days prior to every election and for approximately 2-3 weeks after. When a voter cast a provisional ballot it serves to register the voter and the system places a registration date of the date of the election when they voted provisional. When a new registrant is entered, they are entered without an affiliation. So between the backlog of voter registration that built up over 7 weeks, plus the May 3 Primary Election’s provisional ballots, your number makes sense.

I do confirm that after the August 2, 2022 Primary Election, any voter who fits the criteria to be changed to a different party or reset to no party (your record, for example) will have that task done inside our voter registration database.

Sincerely,

Ross McDonald │Director