As voters in Butler County, as well as volunteers for Voter Protection, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all the employees of the Butler County Bureau of Elections. 

This was a difficult election- regardless of the  politics — as a new system was put into place.  Yet the staff at the Bureau of Elections processed over 100,000 ballots with a dedication to the goal of ensuring all proper votes were counted.

The staff at the Bureau of Elections worked a great deal of overtime, including weekends and holidays,  to ensure that everyone who wanted a ballot got one.  They answered thousands of questions about the process.

Further, they had to spend hours assisting people who came into the office to obtain a  ballot and vote or drop off a write-in ballot. After the votes were cast, they continued to work long hours getting the votes organized for further tabulation to provide succinct information to the Computation Board responsible for  counting the votes.

We worked closely with the Bureau of Elections before Election Day, on Election Day and during the Computation Board’s work to count all the votes, as volunteers for voter protection.

The people we worked with were all nonpartisan, professional, pleasant and hardworking. The attitude of everyone was that it was imperative that anyone who wanted a ballot and was legally entitled to one got one, and that every vote should count if properly cast.

The leadership of the bureau set a tone that every vote is important.

The experience we had confirmed for us that voters in this county can be assured that one can confidently exercise their right to vote, whether at the polls or by mail. That is due to each and every one of the members of the Bureau of Elections.  We all owe them a debt of gratitude.

Carol S. Mills McCarthy, Butler

Lori K. Doerr, Butler