Officials with the Belmont County Board of Elections are still deciding if they will combine poll locations in order to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act's regulations.

The ADA's requirements range from things like 60-inch handicap parking signs, parking lot elevation and pressure limits that determine how hard it is to open a door.

To make sure all polling locations comply with the ADA, the board is considering combining some precincts in the area to one central location. The move would possibly reduce the number of countywide polling locations from 32 to eight.

William Schubat, director of the Belmont County Board of Elections, said his team will do a walk-through at each poll location with an ADA coordinator next month, then the board will make its decision.

Schubat said he wants the public to know the board is trying to do the right thing, but they simply don't know what that is yet.

He said some of the compliance issues are minute.

"We bought signs -- we even bought them from vendors -- handicap accessible signs. According to ADA, the signs are supposed to be 60 inches tall, but the vendor sold us ones that were 59 inches tall," he said.

According to ADA standards, the polling locations must adjust seats, tables, counters and more, Schubat said. He said time spent on making these changes is time spent away from the Board of Elections' main focus: making sure the voting process is operating correctly.

"When we are talking 60 to 70 percent of our time going out on the road and doing all of this and checking everything out, then we aren't able to do our programming of elections," he said.

Combining precincts could mean that people are driving 24 miles to vote, all because a table at their original poll site is 1/4 of an inch too low. The board discussed openly on Wednesday that closing polls is not the route they want to take if they can help it.

"These are the kinds of problems that the board is frustrated with. What our job is is to run efficient and honest elections," he said.

Schubat said the board has a responsibility to taxpayers and to date they haven't had any cases were a voter has been inconvenienced or dissatisfied at any voting location pertaining to an ADA violation.

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