ZANESVILLE — Early voting is under way in Muskingum County, where the Nov. 3 general election ballot carries no contested local races but asks voters to decide 10 tax levies and seven local liquor options across the county’s villages and townships. The Muskingum County Board of Elections, at 627 Market Street in Zanesville, is open for early in-person voting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday this week.
Five of the levies are new requests and five are renewals. The largest is in the village of Philo, where an additional 7.25-mill levy for streets and roads would generate $113,268 a year and cost $254 for each $100,000 of property value. South Zanesville voters will decide a 3-mill additional levy for fire and EMS expected to raise $110,187 a year, and Frazeysburg voters a 3-mill additional levy for police that would raise $61,545.
The renewal requests are led by Washington Township, where a 2.5-mill fire and EMS levy would continue collecting $276,898 a year at a cost of $46 per $100,000 of value. Licking Township is seeking renewal of a 1-mill roads levy, the Springfield Fire District a 0.7-mill renewal for fire and EMS, and Blue Rock and Rich Hill townships small cemetery renewals of 0.4 and 0.25 mill. Brush Creek Township is asking for an additional 0.5 mill for fire and EMS, and Norwich an additional 4 mills for current expenses.
County offices are uncontested. Republican incumbents Melissa Bell for county commissioner and Tina Huebner for county auditor are running without opposition, as are Common Pleas Judge Gerald Anderson, Probate and Juvenile Judge Eric Martin and Domestic Relations Judge Maria Kalis, according to the Zanesville Times Recorder’s review of the certified ballot.
The seven local option questions ask precinct voters about Sunday sales and liquor licenses at specific businesses, including a Nashport convenience store, a Dresden pizzeria, a Hopewell golf club and a South River Road gas station in Zanesville. Those questions are decided only by voters in the precincts where the businesses sit.
The contested choices on Muskingum County ballots are in the district races. Republican Rep. Troy Balderson faces Democrat Jerrad Christian in the 12th Congressional District; Republican Al Landis faces Democrat Laura Sirot in the 31st Ohio Senate District; and in the 97th Ohio House District, Republican incumbent Adam P. Holmes faces independent Kris Geis and Libertarian Tim Godwin. Above those races, voters will help decide Ohio’s statewide contests — governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state and treasurer, two seats on the Ohio Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate race between Republican Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown, and statewide Issue 3, the proposed constitutional amendment that would require voters to present photo identification in order to vote.
Early voting hours expand in the final week: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26, 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, and 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, Oct. 28 to 30, with weekend hours on Saturday, Oct. 24 and Saturday, Oct. 31, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and a final Sunday session on Nov. 1 from 1 to 5 p.m. Voters must bring an accepted photo ID, such as an Ohio driver’s license, a state ID card or a U.S. passport. On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Photo: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0