ASHTABULA – Yard signs are popping up across the area and political commercials have reached the airwaves, which can mean only one thing – election season is upon us.
In an effort to help voters prepare for the general election on Nov. 3, the Ashtabula County Republican Headquarters, 1833 E. 51st. St., Ashtabula, will be open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Oct. 31.
“What we’ll do is, when we get closer to Election Day, if there’s a lot more traffic coming in than we expected, and I kind of think that will happen, then we’ll adjust the schedule and make it a little bit more robust,” Ashtabula County Republican Party Chair Cindy Spink said.
“And, of course, if we get stragglers in, which we do a lot, around 3 o’clock, we’ll be here until everybody’s gone,” Spink continued.
Republican Party volunteers can assist voters with information.
“We need to educate the voters, because a lot of voters don’t understand,” Spink said. “As an example, we do offer early voting. A lot of people vote at the Board of Elections in Jefferson and that starts on Oct. 6. A lot of people come in and they’ll say, as an example, ‘Oh, I got the absentee ballot in the mail yesterday. Why did I get that?’ We go through the process of explaining to them why they got that.”
Beyond the candidates, voters can get information on registering to vote or changing their address with the Ashtabula County Board of Elections.
“Mainly the voters are interested in information about the candidates,” Spink said. “We have our slate card, which is a very handy tool of all the endorsed candidates that are on the ballot. This year, however, unlike previous years, we have a lot of judges on there. Everybody needs to do their homework, because there’s no ‘D’ or ‘R’ next to the name.”
“We register people to vote here,” Spink continued. “We have the form. They can register to vote. They can request an absentee ballot application. They can get all the information that they need, as far as literature, information on the individual candidates. It’s a very robust office that we run here. We have a lot of great volunteers that are just as educated as myself in explaining the qualifications of our candidates.”
The party volunteers will engage with voters on most any topic.
“We have a very robust way of communicating with the public, through our ashtabulagop.com website,” Spink said. “Anything you need to know, it’s right there. We can find out whether you’re registered to vote. A lot of people don’t do social media, but a lot of people do go to that ashtabulagop.com, and we have a spot where they can put their email address in there and receive what we call our newsletter through email, because most people do have email.”
“Our volunteers are able to do this, too,” Spink continued. “I will sit down with somebody that is, say, naive about the process of voting, especially when it comes to the judges with no ‘D’ or ‘R.’ I’ll show them what their ballot will actually look like. I can pull it right up, and they can see that when they go to the polls, this is exactly what their ballot is going to look like. I explain the difference between the liberal judge versus a more conservative judge.”
The Ashtabula County Republican Party Headquarters is also a venue to teach the youth in the community about the election process.
“Bring the young people with you when you come into the headquarters to get information about voting, because those young people need to understand the voting process,” Spink said. “Take them with you to the polls when you go to vote. I would encourage you to do that.”
