Journal-News.com

HAMILTON — The expected date for the Butler County Board of Elections to move into its new facility is July 1, county officials said.

But that may be too late, said board of elections Director Betty McGary, considering voter turnout in the presidential March primary and expected turnout for the general election in November.

"July is even pushing it," McGary said about the move to the new location off Princeton Road in Fairfield Twp. "We suggested (to Butler County commissioners) the safest would be May, the latest should be June."

And it still could be June, said Butler County Interim Administrator Tim Williams.

"If that's the best we can do, that's the best we can do," McGary said. "We may have to make some provisions for that."

That includes keeping some board of elections personnel in the Government Services Center in downtown Hamilton to help count absentee ballots and process voter registration in July.

McGary said work at the board of elections historically increases in August during a presidential election year. And because of growing interest this year, she and her staff are preparing for that upswing to take place a month earlier — about the same time they're moving boxes from one building to another.

"It's going to be a huge effort," McGary said of the move. "But the current space we're in, we've simply outgrown it."

In January, Commissioner Donald Dixon threatened to fire the company contracted to build the county's new board of elections building, saying delays there were "critical."

Still, Williams said the $7 million structure, in its final phase of construction, is on budget. And progress continues at a constant pace because most of the work is indoors.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2112 or dgreber@coxohio.com.

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