Solon polling place runs out of Democratic ballots

Posted by Plain Dealer Staff March 04, 2008 21:02PM

Steve Greenwald, 41, of Solon, said he and dozens of others could not vote at his precinct at Grantwood Golf Course because the precinct ran out of Democratic ballots. Poll workers would not allow the voters to use ballots from other precincts, or provisional ballots, he said.

Instead, they promised more ballots would be there in about five minutes. That was about 5:45 p.m., when he arrived to vote. He left at 7 p.m. without voting.

"I'm very upset," he said. "They should have been way better prepared, especially when they knew coming into this that they were going to have a high voter turn-out due to the tight Democratic race."

The folks kept coming, he said, and they gathered in the golf course ballroom, complaining to each other and spouses on cell phones. He heard that other precincts also ran out of ballots and that the Solon poll workers had told the Board of Elections around 3 p.m. that they needed more ballots.

"It's very disheartening that you try to vote, especially on an evening with an ice storm," Greenwald said. "You try to exercise your constitutional right, and you can't do it."