SHEFFIELD TWP. — The Lorain County Board of Elections will ask the county commissioners for about $172,000 in a letter the board’s director plans to send today.

Elections board Director Jose Candelario said the largest portion of the money will be about $92,000 to cover pollworker and overtime pay from the general elections earlier this month.

The figure would have been smaller, he said, but the elections board had to pay out sick and vacation time to three employees — including former Deputy Director Marilyn Jacobcik — who left earlier this year.

The letter also will ask for $50,000 to cover the costs of the recall election of Elyria Mayor Bill Grace in December. The election will cost between $36,000 and $52,000, Candelario said, but the exact figure won’t be known until after the election is completed.

The board also needs another $30,000 to supplement its annual budget of about $1.8 million, Candelario said.

That cost also will include the special election set for Feb. 2 and already includes levies for the Amherst library and Columbia Schools, Candelario said.

Although that special election isn’t until next year, the ballots will need to be printed by Dec. 29, he said.

Candelario said most of the money the board is asking for will ultimately be returned to the county general fund as the various municipalities pay their bills for the cost of the elections they had issues and candidates in. Elyria, for instance, is responsible for covering the cost of the recall election.

The elections board simply needs the money now to keep operating, Candelario said.

“We need to get that money soon,” he said.

In other action at a meeting Wednesday, the elections board rejected about 300 provisional and absentee ballots cast during the election earlier this month, Candelario said.

The largest group of ballots to be rejected were absentee ballots that weren’t sealed in the envelopes they were returned in. That’s something required by state law, he said.

Another 99 provisional ballots were rejected because the people who voted weren’t registered, he said.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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