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Dropoff site for ballots moved from city library By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings The ill-timed closure of the Ashland Public Library will raise the bar for Ashland Youth Activities Levy supporters trying to get out the vote. "We are worried it will affect people's ability to return ballots," Ashland School Board Vice-chair Amy Amrhein said. "Very worried." The library - normally the primary Ashland ballot dropoff site - will be shut down May 5-18 so library staff can move books and materials into the remodeled children's section in the old Carnegie building. The official drop box will be moved to the Ashland City Recorder's Office at Ashland City Hall on the Plaza and will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays starting May 12, according to Jackson County Elections Clerk Kathy Beckett. "We've had situations occur like this in other cities, and it worked very well," Beckett said. If the shift - and the closed library - results in a lower turnout, the levy could be threatened, according to Amrhein. Levy campaigners have been working the past few weeks to clear up questions about the proposal and to increase voter turnout. The election is a double-majority election requiring at least a 50-percent voter turnout for the levy's passage, so anything which impacts participation could contribute to the levy's fall, even if the majority of residents support it. "We'll do our best to get the word out," Amrhein said. "It's just going to make it difficult." The situation is made more difficult by the fact that the Jackson County voters pamphlet was printed up with the Ashland library named as the ballot drop site. "We were not aware the library was going to be closed until after the voters pamphlet was mailed," Beckett said. After it opens, the library will be used as an unofficial site May 19 and 20, but ballots dropped off there will have to be transported to the recorder's office. "Hopefully the library staff and the county clerk's office will get the word out, too," Amrhein said. Ashland library staff plan to help make things as clear as possible, according to Reference Librarian Amy Blossom. "We'll have a cardboard box there and we'll be able to collect ballots and take them down to Barbara Christensen's office," Blossom said. "We are working as hard as we can to make this work." But Blossom, Amrhein and Beckett all stressed that the election is vote-by-mail, and the drop site question will only be an issue if too many people procrastinate in casting their votes. "People should be mailing their ballots to us," Beckett said. "It's only the people who wait too long that this will matter." Ballots should begin arriving in the mail Saturday, and Beckett recommends they be mailed by Thursday, May 15 at the latest. After that, ballots can be dropped off daily until 5 p.m. at the Ashland City Recorder's office on the Plaza or the Ashland Public Library at the corner of Main and Gresham streets. On May 20, the clerk's office will take ballots until 8 p.m., but the library will shut down prior to that time in order to transfer the ballots to the clerk's office by 8 p.m. deadline. A 24-hour drop ballot drop site will be open starting Tuesday, May 13 at 1101 W. Main Street in Medford. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -