News
Childrens Services Levy Approved Despite Low Turnout for Election
By: Steve Robb - Athens Messenger staff reporter
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ATHENS, Ohio – Three-fourths of the voters — and there weren’t very many of them — cast ballots in favor of the Athens County Children Services levy in Tuesday’s primary election.
The 3-mill, 10-year levy was the only countywide issue on ballot, and the only candidate race was in the Democratic Primary for three at-large seats on Athens City Council. The sparsity of matters to be decided may have caused the turnout at the election, in which only 2,536 ballots were cast countywide, which amounted to a 6 percent turnout.
The renewal levy, which was approved by a vote of 1,891 to 633, will generate about $2.28 million per year for Children Services.
“I appreciate the support we get from the community,” said Children Services Executive Director Cathy Hill. “We work hard to show our value to the community.”
Poll workers who were lined up outside the Courthouse annex delivering their results to the elections board could be heard commenting about the light turnout, which made for a long, slow day for them. Poll workers reported to work at 5:30 a.m., and the polls close at 7:30 p.m.
Jon McPherson worked in Athens Ward 3, Precinct 2, which is a downtown-area precinct normally populated with a high percentage of Ohio University student residents. With OU on summer break, only two voters cast ballots there on Tuesday.
“I sat there for 14 hours. My specific precinct had only two voters,” McPherson said. “I sat there and played chess and did crosswords and talked to people.”
Two precincts on the OU campus, both at Baker Center, had no voters Tuesday.
Several poll workers indicated they would have liked to have seen more people casting ballots.
“We prefer it busier, because it seems like the time goes faster when you’re busy,” said Joyce Nicholson, who worked at Athens South Precinct.
She’s worked elections for more than 20 years, which has apparently honed her prognosticating ability. She guessed that 30 people would cast ballots at the precinct, and that’s how many people showed up.
“I’ll never make that guess again and be right,” she said.
However, before she turns her number-guessing skills to the Ohio Lottery, it should be noted that the vote count from the precinct was 46, with Elections Director Debby Quivey saying the higher number was likely due to the absentee ballots that were added into Tuesday’s unofficial election-night tally.