CLEVELAND — When Cleveland City Council was tasked with changing ward boundaries this year, dropping the total from 17 to 15 because of a drop in population, they weren't the only ones who had to do the redrawing.
"When that happens, the Board of Elections is responsible for drawing precinct lines; we needed to adjust those precinct lines to fit within these new ward boundaries," said Tony Perlatti, Director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
Creating a situation where, while polling locations may not have changed, the voters who go there may have. Such was the case in the old Ward 17, now Ward 15. Though their councilman won't change for a number of voters, their polling place will have some who voted at Our Lady of Angels now voting at St. Mel's and vice versa. Locations that are about a mile and a half apart.
Noah Perry is one of those voters who was impacted, but he'll tell you the impact was minor.
"Not really a big deal for me. I looked up the polling location online, called and verified, so I didn't really think too much of it. But it did get changed, but not a big deal to me personally," he said.
Noah said he first found out through a mailing from the Board of Elections, in fact, every Cleveland voter was sent two mailings this spring with their polling location on them. But if you're still not sure, you can do what Noah did: call (216) 443-VOTE (8683) and follow the prompts, or check online, which is really simple to do.
Just go to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website, and right on the home page, you'll see the Cleveland polling location lookup; it works for the whole county. Click find poll and district information by address. Enter the address you're inquiring about, and it will give you not only the polling location for that property but your precinct, ward, legislative, and congressional districts as well. And you don't have to be a registered voter to use the tool.
"So, if you're just curious because you're trying to help out a family member or a friend again you can do that because it's not pulling up your individual record it's pulling up the geographic locations of your house and your poll place," said Perlatti.
There were also 31,127 suburban voters impacted by voting location changes. They were in Brooklyn, Euclid, Lakewood, South Euclid, Maple Heights, North Royalton and Warrensville Heights.
Those voters were also notified by mail.
