SIDNEY — Two Shelby County Republicans attended their first meeting as members of the Shelby County Board of Elections Monday morning.
James Kerg Jr. and Douglas Pence, both of Sidney, were nominated by the Shelby County Republican Executive Committee to become members of the board of election. Secretary of State Frank LaRose approved the nominations and appointed both to the board.
Kerg is replacing Chris Gibbs on the board. Both Kerg and Democrat Merrill Asher will be serving four-year terms. Asher was nominated by the Democratic Party to serve another term on the board.
Pence is completing the term of office held by Jon Baker, who resigned in February.
Asher served as temporary chairman of the board, which then appointed Pam Kerrigan as director. Donnie Chupp was appointed deputy director.
Since Kerrigan is a Democrat, the chairman for the board has to a Republican, said Asher. Kerg was elected chairman.
Pence was sworn into office by Kerrigan at the beginning of the meeting. Asher and Kerg received the oath of office in Columbus by LaRose.
The board learned of a request from the Darke County Board of Elections to allow seven registered voters vote in Shelby County for a Fort Loramie School District levy. Darke County doesn’t have any county-wide races or issues in the precinct where the voters live.
Chupp said Darke county would send out signature books for the voters to manually sign. The voters would not be checked in on Shelby County e-poll books and the ballots will not go through the scanners.
Both Kerrigan and Chupp will continue to explore the process of having the Darke County voters cast their votes in Shelby County.
The board agreed to change the meeting time from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the third Monday of the month. Due to scheduling conflicts, the next meeting will be Wednesday, March 20, at 4 p.m.