No one in Summit County would vote to wait in longer lines or to cast ballots at a location farther from home.But those outcomes are becoming more likely as the county and its Board of Elections battle over funding during a lean year that also happens to include a presidential election.The board will meet Tuesday to consider sweeping changes in the way Summit voters cast ballots. Among the ideas on the table are reducing the number of precincts and polling locations, eliminating an alternative location for early voting in the fall and cutting jobs.The board’s Democratic members, who are pushing for savings through curtailing the use of part-time employees, are concerned about making more significant changes — ones that could to lead to longer lines — after the March 6 primary.National and statewide groups that monitor voting issues support that view.“We would obviously be concerned by any proposal that will lead to overburdened poll workers or poorly planned and executed consolidations,” said Bob Kengle, Voting Rights Project co-director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a national nonprofit group that operates a toll-free hot line to respond to voters’ concerns.Carrie Davis, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said voting isn’t a “service that is desirable but not necessary.” It’s a constitutional right, she said, and people are “going to show up and vote regardless of what the county budget picture looks like.”Her advice to the board and Summit County is that they “need to make sure people can exercise their right to vote. That’s not something they can cut.”Board leaders from both political parties said there might not be enough money to pay part-time employees and booth workers after the March 6 primary.Summit County budgeted $1.5 million for the elections board for the first three months of this year. It denied a request for an extra $200,000 for the quarter.Still at question is funding for the remainder of the year, with the county and the elections board more than $4 million apart in how much each thinks is needed.If the two sides can’t reach an agreement, they could end up in court. Forcing the county to release more funds hasn’t happened before in Summit.Both Summit County and its elections board have been looking at Lucas and Montgomery counties — similar in size and in the number of registered voters but spending millions less for elections — to try to find potential solutions for their budget battle.Lucas CountyLucas spends significantly less than Summit, especially in the area of part-time employees. Summit has budgeted nearly $400,000 for part-timers this year, compared to about $43,000 in Lucas.Dan DeAngelis, deputy director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, thinks this amount is a little low and the board might end up spending $61,000, which is what it spent in 2008, the last presidential election year.The board’s overall budget for this year of about $3 million is nearly $1.8 million less than the amount being proposed for the Summit County board.“I would say our budget is probably underfunded at this point,” DeAngelis said. “If we’re at the point where we require more funding, the commissioners have been good about coming up with the funding.”DeAngelis said the board, which overall spent $3.7 million in 2008, achieved significant savings by cutting precincts and polling locations. Lucas eliminated 98 precincts in 2009 and another 43 in 2010, leaving it with 354. It went from 200 polling locations to 180.He said the board hasn’t had problems with longer lines, but also hasn’t been through a presidential election with reduced precincts.The board considered purchasing electronic poll books, a step Montgomery County has taken, but couldn’t afford the expense. This new technology, which replaces paper poll books, typically speeds up the check-in process at the polls.“You can’t get too excited,” DeAngelis said. “You know the budgetary constraints everyone is under.”DeAngelis pointed to a few differences that might make Lucas County’s expenses lower than Summit’s, including the fact the board is housed in the county building and doesn’t pay rent, and has electronic voting. The optical scanners in Summit contribute an expense for paper ballots.The Lucas board has polling captains at each voting location who are paid a little more than booth workers. They do not receive benefits.The board has been using an outside location for early voting. It is searching for a new site with more parking for the November election.DeAngelis, on the job only since July, thinks he isn’t experienced enough to offer Summit officials advice.“We all have our own unique circumstances,” he said. “Just hang in there.”Montgomery CountyMontgomery County asked its elections board to cut its budget this year by nearly 10 percent, taking it to about the same level as Lucas at $3 million. The board achieved the savings by reducing its staff by six positions — four full-timers and two part-timers.With more registered voters than Lucas or Summit, Montgomery will spend less per voter this year than either, at $8, compared to $10 in Lucas and $14 in Summit.“If the county had not planned appropriately — purchasing technologies, prepaying service fees — we would need a lot more money,” said Steve Harsman, the board’s longtime director. “As I sit here today, I fully expect to stay within budget.”The board, which spent $4.7 million in 2008, achieved savings, like Lucas, by reducing precincts and polling sites — from 548 precincts to 360 and from 355 polling locations to 176.At the same time, the board invested in 400 electronic poll books, enough for each precinct, with a backup at each polling location. They cost $1,300 each.Harsman said the electronic poll books have greatly streamlined the check-in process at the polls, reduced the error rate on provisional ballots and saved time in the reconciliation process after elections. He said the process is 50 to 60 percent faster than with a paper poll book, though he admitted the true test of the effectiveness will be in November, with the first presidential election since the board adopted the technology.The board has 176 polling location supervisors — one per site — who are paid $800 a year. Many are county employees who are paid their county wage, plus the extra amount from the board, to work on election days and for pre-election training. They don’t receive benefits from the board.The board will have in-person early voting at its main office. Harsman is hoping the board will be better prepared than it was in 2008 because of new ballot-on-demand machines it purchased to print absentee ballots and its plans to have additional staff on hand. When the board got overwhelmed in 2008, the county loaned some of its workers to help meet demand.The county helps the board in other ways as well, including with information technology (IT) services; the Montgomery board has one IT employee, versus Summit’s four.Harsman thinks elections boards should be run like a business, with boards asking, “How can I cut costs and maintain a good product?”Summit CountyThe county is still completing its analysis that compares the Summit elections board’s spending to that in Lucas and Montgomery counties. Preliminary findings show those two boards operate with fewer workers, especially at the administrative level, and spend less than Summit’s board, said Jason Dodson, chief of staff for County Executive Russ Pry.The administration will share the analysis with the County Council when it is complete, and give the council a suggested appropriation for the elections board for the remainder of this year at the beginning of March. The board shouldn’t expect to receive any more money than originally proposed, Dodson said.“We have not received any further detail or information from the board to justify their request of the amount they asked,” he said.The board requested about $9.3 million for this year, which included $1 million in contingency costs. The board spent $7.1 million in 2008.The board completed its own analysis comparing the spending by the three boards, which showed Summit has more employees and precincts than Lucas or Montgomery, and spends more on full-time employees and part-timers.After seeing the results, Alex Arshinkoff, one of the Republican board members, said he will recommend at Tuesday’s meeting that the board reduce the county’s precincts from 475 to 269, go without an outside site for in-person early voting this fall and eliminate 12 district poll worker coordinators.The Democratic board members are concerned that chopping precincts and polling locations in a presidential election year will cause confusion for voters and result in longer lines. They also think the board needs an outside location for early voting, though they’re hoping to use a county-owned property that won’t require rent.The Democrats also don’t want to eliminate the poll worker coordinators — six from each party — who troubleshoot problems at the polls. They are part-time employees who are eligible for full-time benefits, including health care and pensions. The list include several familiar names, such as Michael T. Callahan, a former Summit County prosecutor, county councilman and judge, and John Otterman, a former state representative and Akron councilman.“I think we need them,” said Tim Gorbach, the board’s Democratic chairman.Gorbach thinks the board needs to re-examine how it is using part-timers and whether they are performing needed tasks. He pointed, as an example, to an audit currently being done by 14 part-timers to compare voter registration cards with the information in the board’s computer system.Arshinkoff said more part-timers are going to be needed as the primary gets closer to process absentee ballots and get polling sites ready.“Nobody has come up with any other ideas,” he said.Beacon Journal reporter Rick Armon contributed to this report. Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.