A bill that would move the 2024 election primary date up is sitting in the state house but approval is still going to create challenges for local election officials.
The state senate passed a bill today that would move the election up to March 19. Challenges begin to arise when it comes to the canvasing period being moved up as well to January 2 after the holiday season. Just under 3 months before the election.
After 21 days candidates need to file the correct paper work and file any objections then candidates will hear from the courts on February 15. Once all the objections are decided upon the county’s Bureau of Elections will have to wait until February 22 for the Department of State to give a certified candidate list. Then the office can begin to create a ballot, test machines, train poll workers, mail out mail in ballots and count the ones that return, and then prepare for election day.
Traditionally the county election office would get six weeks to prepare for election day. This year they will get just over three weeks.
Chantell McCurdy is the Director of Bureau of Elections in Butler County. She isn’t worried that her office will be unprepared for a crunched period, she’s concerned about other election partners.
“We need to know because it’s not just our office, we feel confident we can control the things in our office. That’s not the problem,” said McCurdy. “It’s giving notice to all the other organization involved.”
The house returns to session on September 26.
