The Miami County Board of Elections agreed Monday, Nov. 21, to increase the salaries of Director Bev Kendall and Deputy Director Eric Morgan to comply with changes in federal overtime regulations.

After meeting in a brief executive session, the board voted unanimously to increase the administrators’ pay from $43,514 annually to $47,476. As part of the motion to increase the pay, board member Jose Lopez said the action was with the understanding the director and deputy director would not qualify for overtime compensation.

The change is effective Dec. 1. The action was based on changes in federal labor regulations, Lopez explained.

In other business Monday, the board reviewed proposed action on more than 1,100 provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 8 election. The ballots accepted would be counted and added to the Election Day totals before the board met Tuesday afternoon to certify the election results.

Kendall and Morgan told the board 811 of the provisional ballots were valid. The board then reviewed other groups of ballots before voting whether to count or reject the ballots.

Another 153 provisional ballots were approved following review. In the end, 198 ballots were rejected for reasons including lack of the voter’s signature, voting in the wrong polling location and those not registered as voters in Ohio or never registering to vote.

Lopez questioned why those voting in the wrong location – 51 people - were not identified with the use of the electronic poll books. Extra training was requested in areas where problems were encountered.

Kendall said there were fewer people voting in the wrong location this election than previous ones. She said measures to ensure the person is in the proper location is part of poll worker training.

The board also discussed briefly plans for a proposed poll worker recognition event being planned for Dec. 14.