County GOP chairman hired for voter system update
The chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party has been hired on a part-time basis to help the Franklin County Board of Elections transition to a new voter registration system.
Josh Jaffe, who chairs the county GOP’S executive committee, started his new role this week, working up to 30 hours at $30 an hour, said David Payne, the election board’s deputy director.
Jaffe, 32, will oversee the switch from from the Integrity voter registration system to the Tenex system, Payne said.
“Before we make a complete switch, we’re going to run them parallel, and do mock elections to make sure the new Tenex system works,” he said.
Payne said the goal is to have the new system running in time for a possible August special election, if necessary, but by the November election for certain.
Payne, who was also once the political director for the Ohio Republican Party and a former Columbus City Council candidate, said he reached out to Jaffe because “he’s a get-it-done type of guy.”
“He’ll be working with the IT professionals around here,” he said.
Because Jaffe is a part-time hire, the four-member board that oversees the county elections board – two Democrats and two Republicans – did not have to approve the hire, Payne said.
The two Democrats on the elections board, Mike Sexton and Kim Marinello, said they didn’t have concerns with Jaffe’s hiring.
“Well, the way I look at it, he’s a parttime employee, assisting our IT department,” said Sexton, chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Party.
“We have Democrats and Republicans in every department. We’re working in kind of a bipartisan manner to implement this system.”
“People are keeping an eye on either party,” Marinello said.
Catherine Turcer, executive director of the nonprofit Common Cause Ohio, said she isn’t surprised that the Democrats aren’t concerned.
“This is the way the system is set up at this point, as long as they’re very transparent at this point who they’re selecting,” Turcer said.
“Our system is significantly better than one political party making a decision for a county,” she said.
Jasmine Ayres, a local progressive Democrat and former Columbus City Council candidate, said she understands the bipartisan nature of the board of elections.
“I think my initial thoughts are did this person support the (Ohio) Secretary of State purging voters?” Ayres said.
In January, Ohio completed a purge of 97,795 voters, its first since the 2020 election.
Under state law, voters who don’t cast ballots for six consecutive years or do not respond to notices to update their registration can be removed from the rolls.
Jaffe said the local elections board has to follow the Ohio Secretary of State’s directives. Frank Larose, the secretary of state, is a Republican.
“Keeping clean voter rolls is important,” Jaffe said. “My general opinion as a low-level employee doesn’t enter into it.”
Jaffe said the transition from one voter registration system to the other at the county board is pretty complicated, and one of his jobs is to make sure the switch meets its deadline.
“Democrats and Republicans work together on everything the board needs to be done,” he said. “I’m Republican and worked with a lot of people at the board for years.” mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik