The Portage County, Ohio, elections board has barred its sheriff\u2019s office from providing security during early voting after Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski (R) urged people to collect the addresses of residents displaying yard signs for Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s decision Friday, which affects in-person absentee voting, came a week after Zuchowski said in public Facebook posts that residents should \u201cwrite down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!\u201d The messages sparked concerns among local residents, civil rights groups and regional politicians about voter intimidation during the presidential election, in which Harris is the Democratic nominee.<\/p>\n
The elections board is now considering whether police from the town of Ravenna, Ohio, or a private firm will take over election security duties. And Zuchowski, who is seeking reelection, took down his posts after the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio sent him a letter last week arguing that he had \u201cmade an impermissible threat\u201d against residents for expressing their political beliefs.<\/p>\n
Elections board member Randi Clites, who introduced the motion to change the county\u2019s elections security policy, said in a statement Friday that public comments in response to Zuchowski\u2019s posts had made clear \u201cthere is perceived intimidation by our Sheriff against certain voters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe walking into a voting location where a Sheriff Deputy can be seen may discourage voters from entering,\u201d Clites (D) wrote.<\/p>\n
In a Facebook post on Sept. 17, the day the ACLU sent the sheriff its letter, Zuchowski wrote on his public page that he had \u201ca first amendment right as do all citizens,\u201d adding that his posts \u201cmay have been a little misinterpreted??\u201d<\/p>\n
Zuchowski wrote that if Portage County residents voted for Harris and supported her board policies, \u201cthen that is their prerogative.\u201d He continued: \u201cThat being said\u2026I believe that those who vote for individuals with liberal policies have to accept responsibility for their actions!\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not immediately respond to The Washington Post\u2019s request for comment Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Portage County has joined Springfield \u2014 about 160 miles southwest \u2014 as an Ohio community thrust into the national spotlight after conservative politicians made public, inflammatory comments about immigrants there.<\/p>\n
Tensions in Portage County rose on Sept. 13, when Zuchowski made identical posts on his public and private Facebook accounts suggesting that the county would see an influx of undocumented immigrants if Harris wins the presidential race.<\/p>\n
He said residents should note the addresses of Harris supporters so that if undocumented immigrants \u2014 whom he described collectively as a \u201clocust\u201d \u2014 moved there after the election, \u201cWe\u2019ll already have the addresses of their New families \u2026 who supported their arrival!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Alongside the caption, Zuchowski posted photos from Fox News coverage of Springfield and Aurora, Colo. \u2014 both of which former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have mentioned while repeating baseless claims about immigrant communities.<\/p>\n
In the days after Zuchowski\u2019s initial posts, residents called the county\u2019s board of elections office to share concerns about the sheriff\u2019s messages, said Terrie Nielsen, deputy director of the board.<\/p>\n
As those worries grew, the county\u2019s NAACP chapter held an emergency meeting Thursday for community members to discuss the matter. Nielsen, who attended, said it was \u201cdisheartening\u201d to hear residents talk about the posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many people who stood up and said they were afraid to vote, and that is just not acceptable,\u201d she told The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
The next day, the four-person board of elections voted to change its policy on security for in-person absentee voting. Three members \u2014 Clites, Doria Daniels (R) and board chair Denise Smith (D), who is also chair of the county\u2019s Democratic Party \u2014 voted for the change.<\/p>\n
Amanda Suffecool, a board member and chair of the Portage County GOP, dissented, calling the vote \u201cunfortunate.\u201d In a Facebook post Monday, Suffecool said that hiring alternate security improperly \u201ccasts aspersions\u201d on the sheriff\u2019s department.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese men and women from the sheriff\u2019s department have committed no crime and serve the county faithfully,\u201d Suffecool wrote. \u201cFor them to be caught up in this fight between the parties is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her statement Friday, Clites thanked the Portage County deputies who had worked during previous elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not for one second believe any Deputy would not continue to provide that level of service this election cycle, however not every citizen or voter has had that same opportunity to build the level of trust with our Deputies,\u201d Clites said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Portage County, Ohio, elections board has barred its sheriff\u2019s office from providing security during early voting after Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski (R) urged people to collect the addresses of residents displaying yard signs for Vice President Kamala Harris. The board\u2019s decision Friday, which affects in-person absentee voting, came a week after Zuchowski said in public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}