North Canton Residents Sound Off on Election Day

It’s been a busy morning inside — one of a handful of polling locations in North Canton.

Voters have streamed in to cast their ballots on Election Day, and the poll workers have seen little problems, presiding judge Stephanie Whitacre said. Whitacre was joined this morning by poll workers Brian Berrey and Tami Fisher.

North Canton residents saw a couple contested council seats this year, a contested mayor’s race and five candidates each running for both and , not to mention a few state issues, which include , and a county-wide sales tax increase.

Melanie and John Roll arrived this morning to vote on several candidates and issues that concerned them.

The couple said the eight-year of 0.5 percent might be more important to the county than people realize, and perhaps they don’t understand how little they will pay. Supporters have said the increase is necessary to maintain the current level of safety in the county and operate the jail at a maximum of 501 beds.

If Issue 29 passed, Stark County would still have the lowest sales tax rate in Ohio.

The couple’s ward councilman, , ran unopposed this year, they said, and they looked closely at all the candidates running for council at large.

“I strongly believe we need to elect a member who will oppose the general opinions and who will dig out the facts and who’s not afraid to speak out against conventional wisdom,” John said.

Meanwhile, Anthony Pirovano came to the polling site ready to cast his vote in favor of Issue 2.

“Ted Strickland led our state into an $8 billion budget deficit, and in order to circumvent that, John Kasich came up with Senate Bill 5 that’s now before us to try to balance the budget," Pirovano said. "It’s my belief, if there’s no balanced budget, there will be cuts in teachers’ salaries, firefighters, police departments.”