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A Major Change May Be On The Way for Summit County's Local Primary Elections

Ideastream Public Media

Published July 4, 2018 at 5:16 AM EDT

City and County leaders meet — Akron City Council President with five city Mayors and the Summit County Executive

This could be the last year that Summit County holds its primary election on a different day from the state’s.

The mayors of five Summit County cities and the county executive want to move the local primary to May to coincide with the state’s.

Deputy County Elections Director Paula Sauter says it would save money and make absentee voting easier for on-duty military personnel.

“The savings annually could be anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000 a year if we are able to completely eliminate the September primary from the County’s budget.”

In their joint announcement, the mayors and county executive said they will ask their respective councils to approve putting the issue before the voters in this years’ general election.