CLEVELAND — Early voting begins Tuesday in the non-partisan September 9 municipal primaries, and that means for voters in Cuyahoga County, a trip to a new location.
After decades at East 30th Street and Euclid Avenue, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections moved in May to the old Plain Dealer building about a mile away at East 18th Street and Superior Avenue after entering into a 17-year, $91 million lease.
One of the major reasons for the move was the space needed to stage in-person early voting, especially in presidential election years when the lines would often stretch around the block.
The new location offers not only a larger internal space for voting to take place, but also more area inside for the staging of voters waiting in line to vote.
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Director Anthony Perlatti said the new location also fills one of the most lacking voids, parking.
"We have a surface lot right here that's bigger, there's another surface lot that actually the construction is just about done. We'll have that available when the time comes and then the biggest of the biggest there's a parking garage," Perlatti said that will add hundreds of spaces. "Now that parking garage we probably won't need to use that for voters until maybe November of 2026 but again we have more of the things we need here that are under our control."
Before you rush down to check out the new location and vote early in this primary, make sure you even have a primary to vote in. Only about a quarter of the county has primaries as voters in all or part of six cities will be heading to the polls.
Only seven of the 15 wards in Cleveland have primaries; they'll be joined by voters in East Cleveland, Garfield Heights, Lakewood, Maple Heights and Cleveland Heights, where, in addition to the mayoral primary, voters are also deciding the question on whether to recall current Mayor Khalil Seren.
"The greatest source of confusion will be for Cleveland voters, not that the ballot is confusing but with only seven of 15 wards in the election, those other eight if they appear unfortunately we have to turn them away," Perlatti said. "We don't have a ballot for them."
Primaries occur only when there are more than two candidates on the ballot, as the top two advance to the November election.
In the newly redrawn Ward 10, where Councilmen Mike Polensek and Anthony Hairston are facing each other, there is no primary because they are the only two and will face off against each other in November.
Same in the race for Cleveland mayor, with incumbent Justin Bibb going up against Laverne Gore.
The BOE sits between Superior and St. Clair avenues and East 18th and East 21st streets.
Voters looking to vote in person will enter the parking lot off East 18th Street.
Voters looking to use the drop box either to drop off a vote by mail ballot application or ballot once they receive one, they'll use the East 21st Street entrance, go through the parking lot behind the building and then exit out the East 18th Street side.
They also remind voters that there is no entrance from the front of the building on Superior Avenue, everyone will enter from the rear of the building off the parking lot.
Early voting hours are weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the first few weeks, expanding as we get closer to the September 9 primary.
