TUSCARAWAS COUNTY (WJER) - The ballots for Tuscarawas County’s March primary have been certified. The Board of Elections approved them Wednesday and sent them to the state for approval as well. 

Issues around the county include New Philadelphia’s 5.1-million-dollar bond issue and .5-million-dollar additional levy to build new district campuses; a 5-year, 5-million-dollar additional levy in Claymont for facilities maintenance to replace three expiring levies; and a 5-year, 2-million-dollar road maintenance levy in Bucks township. 

Director Gail Garbrandt says they had to be ready in time for Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act voters to receive their absentee ballots.

“In order for us to be ready for our UOCAVA, our military, voters on Friday --which is UOCAVA Friday-- we had to be done with the proofing of the ballot.”

Garbrandt says the board will now be preparing voting machines and poll workers for the precincts until election day.

    
“The Secretary of State has divided the election into different staging events, and we are going through those every week, and we have times that we have to comply by.”

Republican voters will see the only locally-contested race in the primary with Juvenile Court Magistrate Adam Wilgus and Assistant County Prosecutor Amanda Miller both vying for Juvenile Court Judge Linda Kate’s position.

Says Garbrandt, “We will have seventeen-year-old voters in this election. They can vote in the primary as long as they will be eighteen by the general election. They can only vote on candidates; they cannot vote on issues.”

At the state level, 6th district congressman Bill Johnson faces challenger Kenneth Morgan for the Republican nomination. The winner of that race will face Democrat Shawna Roberts in the general election. 

WJER