County election bureau relocation nearly complete
County voters who want to change their party affiliation, change their mailing address, obtain a new voter identification card or register to vote must go to the county Bureau of Elections’ new office beginning Jan. 17.
The first phase of the office’s relocation to 227 W. Cunningham St. was in its final stages Wednesday as county workers were setting up desks for the four registrars in the bureau’s main office. A new wall with service windows where staff will assist voters is already in place.
“We’re excited about the move,” said Chantell McCurdy, election bureau director.
The election bureau will share the building with District Judge William Fullerton and Magisterial District Court 50-3-05, which is the current occupant, until the district court is relocated to office space the county is renting at 107 Woody Drive.
In the second phase, the district court offices will be renovated into an administrative office, vote tabulation room and storage for the election bureau. The renovation project cost about $370,000 including design work.
The district court will move out before the May 16 primary, and county officials hope the renovations for the election bureau will be finished in time for the general election in November.
Bureau staff and the county commissioners said the new office will be better for administering elections and more convenient for residents than the bureau’s current office on the basement floor of the Butler County Government Center on West Diamond Street.
The storage space in the first phase of the renovation is twice as much as what is available in the bureau’s current office, McCurdy said.
Voters with absentee or mail-in ballots will be able to turn in their ballots on election day without waiting in a long line, such as the one that stretched outside of the current office in the 2020 election, due to the hiring of additional registrars, she said.
“The line was down the hall, up the steps and out the door,” McCurdy said about election day in 2020.
There were two registrars on staff for the 2020 election. Positions for two more registrars have been created since then, but only one of them has been filled, she said.
People who visit the office can park in the one-hour parking spaces in front of the building on West Cunningham Street and walk directly into the building and enter the bureau office, which is on the street level.
The second phase includes installing large windows where voters and observers can watch the computation board count ballots, McCurdy said.
A loading dock at the rear of the building connects with the storage room and will make it easier for election judges to deliver ballots after the polls close, she said.
The county commissioners agreed on the benefits the new office will provide to voters.
“It’s good for the public and the judges of elections and the bureau,” said Leslie Osche, chairwoman of the commissioners. “There’s more space for people to observe what’s happening.”
Among the election procedures people can observe more easily in the new office is the logistic and accuracy tests of vote scanning machines, Commissioner Kevin Boozel said.
The move will also reduce congestion at the loading docks at the government center, Osche said. She said those docks are occupied by the returning of scanners and other materials from the polls for two days following elections.
The bureau’s new office will keep the current phone number, open the same hours — from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. — and be closed on the same holidays as the government center.
When the move is finished, the register of wills office will move into the bureau’s old office, and the domestic relations office will then move into the register of wills office.
