ZANESVILLE - It's not surprising that hundreds of Muskingum County residents did not exercise their rights to vote during the 2020 primaries, according to Tim Thompson, director of the local board of elections.
"We have several hundred ballots unreturned each year and this year was no exception, which is frustrating," Thompson said. "There is a lot of time and money spent on getting mail-in ballots to voters."
Additionally, many ballots were discarded because they did not arrive in time to meet the deadline requirements.
"We added 49 absentee and 120 provisional ballots on election day," Thompson said. "I don't have the numbers for how many were discarded because they didn't meet deadline, but there were several."
Just ours before polls were to open, state lawmakers extended mail-in voting until April 28 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The legislature's plan carved out in-person voting only for disabled and homeless people. All other voters were supposed to request a mail-in ballot and upon receipt, fill it out and either mail it back or drop it off at the board of elections.
As this week ended a historic primary election, it lends itself to question how mail-in voting will effect the results.
According to a new poll from USA TODAY and Suffolk University, two-thirds of Americans support voting by mail as an alternative to voting in person on Election Day during the coronavirus pandemic.
The poll found 65 percent of Americans support vote-by-mail as an alternative, a greater than 2-to-1 margin over the 32 percent of Americans who oppose the option. Three percent said they were undecided.
Locally, the turnout for primary was typical for Muskingum County voters, with a 19.43 percent cast, falling just 2 percent lower than the 2018 primary. However, it is considerably lower than the numbers seen during a presidential election year. In 2016, 40.55 percent of Muskingum County voters cast ballots during the primary.
Those results could mean lower voter turnout for the general election if pandemic orders remain in place as expected, forcing voters to cast ballots via mail.
The official results show no changes locally since the votes were originally tallied on April 28.
Todd Hixson beat out Brett Nelson 3,531 to 1,739 for Muskingum County Treasurer.
Both Muskingum County aggregations were shot down by voters, with 3,097 to 2,806 on the electric aggregation and 89 to 88 on the South Zanesville gas aggregation.
South Zanesville voters also rejected a 2.1-mill levy for parks and recreation 88 to 92.
Perry Township voters approved a 3-mill fire levy 343 to 104, and Norwich Union Fire District voters approved for a 1-mill levy, 231 to 44.
The only income tax issue on the ballot was a 0.5 percent increase for the Village of Dresden. It was rejected 90 in favor and 97 opposed.
cschultz3@gannett.com
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Twitter: @infoobtainer1
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Hundreds of ballots not returned, many discarded - Zanesville Times Recorder
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