Ohio In-plant Plays Pivotal Role in Election Process
As election day nears, one Ohio in-plant’s crucial contribution to the election process is gaining recognition. Not only does the Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners’ Graphic Design, Printing & Mailing Services operation print important communications for voters, in-plant employees are directly involved in making sure their votes count.
Design, Print and Mailing Services staff, from left: Lynn Burkes, business analyst; Diana Donovan, graphic designer; Chris Jouan, graphic designer; Brian Moore, press technician; Paul Jones, materials services manager; Michelle Amonds, materials clerk; and Kent Stuck, mailroom supervisor. | Credit: Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners
“We pick up the [absentee] ballots when they are mailed back,” says Paul Jones, material services manager at the Dayton, Ohio, in-plant. “Our mailroom goes and picks them up [from the post office] and they secure them in our location.”
Then two Board of Elections workers, one Republican and one Democrat, come there together and retrieve the ballots, he says.
Why has this important task fallen on the in-plant?
“We pick up all the other mail,” explains Jones, simply. “They trust us.”
Last week, he says, his team picked up and secured 35,000 ballots – and he expects that number to rise as election day approaches.
Though the Board of Elections is “by far” the in-plant’s biggest customer, Jones says, the operation also serves the sheriff’s department, Children’s Services, Veterans Affairs, and local townships, among other entities. The shop prints everything from business cards, forms, and envelopes, to employee training materials, benefits packages, court documents, and even crime scene photos. Its election-related printing, though, is vital to ensuring the voting process goes smoothly. Items like change-of-address forms and notices of new polling locations are mailed directly to voters.
In 2022, Jones and his team were praised by county officials after they worked more than 50 hours through Easter weekend to print 365,000 voting precinct change notice postcards for the Board of Elections. The postcards had to be printed and in the mail seven days before the election.
The in-plant also prints scores of directional and instructional signs and floor graphics for polling locations on its 64” Mimaki UV printer, and laminates them on its JFP 363TH laminator.
“We did probably 100-150 2x3-ft. signs and probably another 50 8.5x11” repositionable signs that actually stick to the floor,” Jones says. “They used to print them on the copier and then … take packaging tape and tape them to the floor.”
Now that customers have seen the floor graphics, he says, “they love it.” It’s inspired them to come up with new ideas for wall graphics, he says.
Located in a 4,000-sq.-ft. space inside the county administration building, “30 yards from the front door of the Board of Elections,” Jones says, the in-plant expects the building to be a bit busier than normal on election day. But inside the in-plant, it will be business as usual.
“We’ll be in there printing, and the mailroom will be busy,” he says.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
