The Geauga County Board of Elections voted 3-1 July 2 in favor of moving to its new location in the basement of the new county office building, marking the end of a multi-year saga rife with conflict.
The Geauga County Board of Elections voted 3-1 July 2 in favor of moving to its new location in the basement of the new county office building, marking the end of a multi-year saga rife with conflict.
In 2021, the election board sought outside legal counsel regarding their space in the new county office building on Ravenwood Drive in Claridon Township, which was under construction at the time.
The board had a number of issues with the space, including the fact it would lose about 1,600 square feet in the new location compared to its old space at 470 Center St., concerns the new building’s fire suppression system could damage the voting equipment were it to ever go off and concerns the space was not large enough to accommodate early voters during elections, causing people to potentially wait in line on the steps.
The election board filed a lawsuit against the Geauga County Commissioners in May 2022, noting an unfit layout for early voting and inadequate storage space. They also asked the court to force the county to pay for a chemical fire suppression system, which would not damage the board’s equipment.
A settlement was reached in May 2023, with modifications made to the election board floor plan. The county agreed to pay for damage to equipment in the event the water-based fire suppression system went off.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a security directive May 29, 2025, that said, “Proper physical security of the board office protects personnel, voting equipment, voting systems and other IT systems to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of elections. Risks, such as damage from fire or water and unauthorized physical access, must be reduced whenever possible.”
With the water-based system noncompliant, the election board server closet needed to be upgraded with a compliant system before server infrastructure could be moved, Geauga County Automatic Data Processing Deputy Chief Administrator Frank Antenucci said in a follow-up email July 7.
“We already had implemented a chemical system for the server room. Now, most of the office will be a chemical system,” board chair Dennis Pavella said in a follow-up interview.
Antenucci had asked about an estimate for a compliant system in all technology sensitive locations, board member Janet Carson said July 2.
There are two quotes, one covering the rooms where voting equipment is and one including all end-user machine locations, Antenucci said.
Carson outlined two concerns with that setup.
“My first concern is that we do this and then the secretary of state comes back and says, ‘Nope, you didn’t do enough,’ and then we have to do it again and add something else and change what we’re doing,” she said. “The second concern is the safety of our employees with that system.”
A halon system is not being used for the board, Antenucci said, noting it is not safe for humans. The fire suppression fluid used in the board’s system is considerably more environmentally friendly and safe for humans, giving them time to evacuate, he added.
“There is a safety team working through how we do evacuations and how we coordinate that, versus in the past, when it was kind of every man, woman for themself,” he said, adding while immediate escape routes can be delineated initially, a larger, coordinated plan may take slightly longer.
Antenucci assured Carson he would get information to her regarding the time the board will have to evacuate.
Carson noted LaRose’s security directive also refers to water damage and there are water pipes running through a storage area.
The team is looking at adding humidity sensors and water sensors, which will give service crews time to secure an area, Antenucci replied.
“If a pipe breaks or something like that and gets everywhere, we are in response mode at that point,” he said. “The goal would be to add as much technology to cut that off before anything that serious happens, we have the ability to do shut offs and whatnot.”
Antenucci noted while July 14 is the date currently set for the non-technology move, he wants to push for it to happen earlier.
While Geauga County Auditor Chuck Walder said he would like to see the board of elections unanimously vote to move, Carson said that would not be possible, as she did not believe her concerns with the new space had been addressed properly.
“It’s not just a matter of technology to me. It’s a matter of the whole space, where we are, how are voters are going to be accessed, how are we going to accommodate early voters in this space with the stairs, with the elevators, with every concern that we’ve raised since the initial part when we were told, ‘This is where we’re going to be in the building,’” she said, adding she did not sign the settlement agreement because she did not think it was good enough.
“It did not, to me, protect the ease of voting for voters in Geauga County and I don’t believe this building will do that for us in any capacity unless we move the equipment out of the storage space and put an early voting sign out there,” she said. “We do not have the space to accommodate voters and it’s not safe for them to be on the stairs.”
Early voting is increasing and will continue to increase, she said.
“There has never been a study done for flow of voters in the space to show how long it’s going to take for them to be on the stairs or waiting to vote. Those are all things that should have been done and have not been done even though we’ve requested them,” she said. “To me, it’s about the voters, the safety of our employees and the fact that we have a physical building that I do not believe accommodates the board of elections.”
While she appreciated everything the county has done, it is still not enough, Carson said, adding she would be voting “no” on moving.
While the basement is not the perfect location, the board can no longer remain in its old space and some election boards are worse off, said board member Richard Piraino.
“To that regard, we have to look at what we have and, unfortunately, these are cards we are dealt and we have to deal with what we have,” he said, adding they have to move.
Board of elections Director Michelle Lane and board member Joan Windnagel both echoed Carson’s concerns.
“In a presidential or gubernatorial (election), where we’re at, I have to set tables up in hallways so we have enough space to process what we need to do,” Lane said. “Our processes and procedures require that at times. We are receiving 1,600 less square feet here than where we’re at. So, that is a concern of mine.”
She is also concerned with how to process voters.
“We will do everything we can to make this work,” Lane said. “But, those concerns, I still have those concerns.”
In the old building, early voters understood they were in a space from the 1950s. The new building doesn’t have that excuse, Windnagel added.
The board voted 3-1 to move with Carson being the sole “no” vote.
