Sayre turns the page as he leaves Board of Elections
Tuscarawas County Board of Elections director Allan Sayre is stepping down from the position.
Tuscarawas County Board of Elections director Allan Sayre is stepping down from the position. He submitted his resignation the day after the May 7 primary and will officially leave the job on June 7.
The decision has a lot to do with Sayre’s son graduating from high school and the desire for travel and other private activities that have been hard to balance with his public life.
“My wife and I decided that we wanted to turn the page and start a new chapter,” Sayre said.
Another reason Sayre is choosing this moment to step down is so his replacement will have a chance to gain experience during the 2019 general election before the presidential election in 2020. Sayre came into the job in September 2016 and joked that he was still looking for the light switches when the presidential election took place.
Taking over the position during a slow time before major elections will give his replacement time to get to know the staff in Tuscarawas County as well as at the Ohio secretary of state’s office. The director is required to constantly keep in touch with the state office and keep up to date on advisories, directives and memorandums.
His tenure in the position has been brief, but he has overseen many changes in the way Tuscarawas County holds elections. The board acquired electronic poll books in May 2017 and upgraded to high-speed scanners and ExpressVote machines for the November election that year.
There also were concerns during the 2016 election about hacking, and Sayre said he did receive a number of calls from residents about election integrity. He said he always did his best to explain to them why conspiracy theories propagated by YouTube videos don’t necessarily pertain to Ohio elections.
“Back in 2016 there was a lot of propaganda and a lot of concern with different machines being able to be hacked,” Sayre said. “I can’t speak for other states, but in Ohio it just wasn’t realistic.”
Under Ohio law, the voting machines are never connected to the internet, so the only way for someone to hack into them would be for that person to physically be present at the polling location and to access each individual machine. He said there’s no way polling staff would allow someone to do this.
The board will meet and decide what qualities they want in the next director. Ohio law says the chairman of the county board and director cannot be from the same party. Because chairman Tom Hisrich is a Republican, Sayre’s replacement must be a Democrat.
Once the requirements are decided, the board will post them and begin taking applications. They also will send a copy of the ad to the secretary of state’s office. Any applicant from the state can be hired as long as he or she is a resident of Tuscarawas County within 30 days of being hired.
Though the position requires the candidate to be a Democrat, the county Democratic Party doesn’t have any special authority with choosing the replacement. According to party chair Gail Garbrandt, the only thing the Democratic Party does with regard to the Board of Elections is select candidates for an appointment when a vacancy opens.
“We appreciate that Tuscarawas County was so fortunate to have had such a great public servant as Allan Sayre,” Garbrandt said, “and that his work at the Board of Elections was not only a tribute to the Democratic Party, but it was a tribute to every single citizen in Tuscarawas County.”
Sayre made sure to pass along some advice for the next director.
“Learn and listen as much as possible,” he said. “The more you can learn and pick up early, the better you’ll be. And have a willingness to put in the extra time to learn everything and listen to the people.”
Before his time as director of Board of Elections, Sayre worked as chief deputy auditor under county auditor Larry Lindberg. Before that he represented the 96th District in the Ohio House of Representatives. While in office he served as majority floor leader, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission and vice chair of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.
The Tuscarawas County Board of Elections is located at the original courthouse on the square in New Philadelphia. They can be called at 330-343-8819 or emailed at tuscaraw@ohiosecretaryofstate.gov. They are present on the web at https://tuscarawas.ohioboe.com/, where residents can find registration; absentee voting; precinct, candidate and voter information; and other important data.
A full schedule of Board of Elections meetings also is available on the website.