Board of Elections picks new leaders
NEW PHILADELPHIA – The Tuscarawas County Board of Elections has a new director and board chairman.
At its biennial organizational meeting Thursday, the board opted for new leadership, replacing Democrat Gail Garbrandt as director with Republic Brian Swartzwelder, previously the deputy director.
The Board also tabbed Democrat Mark Waltz as its new chairman. Swartzwelder says the director and chairman must be from different parties, so after appointing a Republican as the director, they picked a Democrat as the board chair.
Swartzwelder anticipates no issues with the change in leadership two months prior to the May election.
“We are preparing the primary now – working on the ballot, and then we’ll start working on lining up the poll workers and getting all the equipment ready for May,” he said. “It should be fine. We’re good.”
Registration for the May 6th election ends April 7th. Early voting starts April 8th. This is an issues-only ballot, so there will not be Republican or Democratic ballots.
Swartzwelder says the office has already received requests for absentee ballots requesting party ballots. He says they will contact the senders to let them know there are no party ballots and ask if they want the issue-only ballot.