GALION – A longtime member of the Crawford County Board of Elections is stepping down after this year’s presidential election.
Jo Swain, a staunch Republican and a familiar face in the county political arena, will work her final election Nov. 3, then finish the remainder of her four-year term, which will end Feb. 28, 2021.
“I’m gonna’ miss it a lot,” said Swain, as she manned the phones and passed out patriotic signage to other faithful GOP’s at the busy Republican headquarters in uptown Galion. “But I’m 82 years old now and there are certainly other people much younger than I who can do it.”
Swain, who was first appointed to the position in 1998 under then-Secretary of State Bob Taft, is one of four members on the elections board – two Republicans and two Democrats – who work together to ensure fair, accurate and timely elections as outlined in the Ohio Revised Code.
General elections though are usually the busiest – and longest. For Swain, that means getting out of bed at 4:30 a.m., then stopping at Galion High School to check-in at the polling place and 10 precincts she oversees. By 6:30 she’s in Bucyrus at the Board of Elections office.
The marathon day lasts until the final vote is counted. With 35 precincts in all, ballots dropped off by poll workers well into the evening have to be tallied. Nowadays, she said, memory cards from the scanners are fed into a computer, but the results aren’t certified until 10 days later.
Swain and the board tend to other duties year-round too. They are responsible for hiring a director, deputy director and clerical staff. They attend monthly meetings, approve payroll and make sure ballots and voting materials are available. There’s also training and education at the state level.
But it’s the political process that makes the Crawford County native tick.
“I like the whole political process, and I’ve been voting since the Kennedy-Nixon election when a person had to be 21 to vote then,” said Swain, who also serves on the Republican Central Committee. “But on election day I don’t get tired. Really. I love it. I like this whole thing.”
Swain, who was born in Jefferson Township, moved to Galion with her family in sixth grade. She graduated from Galion High School in 1956 and earned a degree from The Ohio State University. She and her late husband, John, had two children, John II and Julie Swain Standish.
Swain’s husband, Galion’s longtime police chief and later the city’s safety service director, was also by her side for more than 30 years at the Republican headquarters, handing out – for donations only – yard signs, bumper stickers, flags and buttons.
Swain, who’s a walking dictionary of local, county and state races and issues, avidly recruits poll workers for her precincts and sets up their training. It was her idea years ago to get GHS seniors involved, which has spilled over to other parts of the county.
It only seems fitting that her final election will be one of her biggest.
“I said I’d stay through this election and after that, there’s more work than most people know,” she said. “Through all the years that I’ve been doing this we’ve had board members come and go, but I’ve enjoyed the whole process. I just think it’s time to stop and let someone younger takeover.”