The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is looking to move its offices but before signing a lease at its new home some county council members are worried whether the move will interfere with November’s election.
The county has a deal with the owner of 1801 Superior Avenue, the former home of the Plain Dealer newspaper offices in Downtown Cleveland, officials from the county executive's office told council members Tuesday during a committee meeting.
Industrial Commercial Properties purchased the building in 2022 from the newspaper’s publisher for $12.4 million.
“The need for the Board of Elections is primarily to accommodate increased early in-person voting because there's a lack of room for queuing indoors,” Public Works Director Mike Devers told county council Tuesday.
Parking is also a concern at the current building. There are more than 700 dedicated spaces for parking at the building on Superior, Devers said. The current BOE building at East 30th and Euclid only has 48 spots in its lot and the rest are leased by the county. The availability of extra parking at election time every year is not a guarantee, said Devers.
“It's just becoming more difficult because both residential and businesses are moving in the area,” Devers said.
The county would spend $91 million to lease three of the Plain Dealer building’s four floors until 2041. The fourth floor is occupied by the social services agency Step Forward.
The Board of Elections would occupy the first and part of the second floors and some of the county’s health and human services operations would take the rest of the second and all of the third floor.
Elections officials would increase their office space from about 173,000 square feet to about 223,000 square feet. The move into the new building for some Health and Human Services operations would be part of a downsizing, including the closure of the Jane Edna Hunter Social Services building near the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East 40th Street in 2027, from about 615,000 square feet to 362,000 square feet overall.
During the committee meeting, several council members focused on whether the county will try to make the move in time to take advantage of that additional space and parking in November.
“As of right now, the intent is that early voting for the presidential election would take place at the current location,” Devers said. “That's something we can revisit as the project continues to advance.”
That uncertainty did not sit well with some council members, including Councilmember Sunny Simon.
“The paperwork says you're going to do it after the election, but if there's any effort to squeeze it in beforehand, I'm not comfortable with that,” Simon said. “And I still hear daylight like it's going to happen anyway.”
Elections officials will make their final decision about whether the building might be usable for the November election and early voting starting October 8, by July 1, said BOE Director Anthony Perlatti.
“I have a four-person board, that I report to, and I would give them a report on if we can do it or not do it,” Perlatti told council. “And then it would be on that body, I think, to take that vote at a public meeting if it could happen or not.”
The council committee decided to wait to vote on the move to continue discussing the schedule.
