Contributors: Rachel Jamison, Deb Wang, and Aaron Yeager.
Early voting has already begun for this year’s 2024 Democratic Party primary election, and most candidates are running uncontested within the party. For the races that are contested, you can read below to find our recommendations.
Table of Contents
1. Important dates for voting
2. Sample ballot for Stow, Ohio
3. Details on candidates in contested races
Important dates for voting
THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY IS TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2024.
Polls open at 6:30 a.m., and close at 7:30 p.m. You can find your polling location by looking up your name on the Board of Elections website.
Other important dates are below:
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 2/20 | Deadline to register to vote in the 2024 Primary Election. |
| 3/12 | Absentee ballot applications must be received by Summit County Board of Elections. |
| 2/21-3/19 | Early in-person voting at the Summit County Board of Elections. For early voting, you must apply for and return an absentee ballot. Absentee ballots must be returned to your county’s Board of Elections, not polling stations. Final deadline for hand-delivery by self or close relative is Election Day — Tuesday, March 19, 2024 — at 5 p.m. The Summit County Board of Elections is open on select weekend days: 1. Saturday, 3/9/2024, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 2. Saturday, 3/16/2024, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 3. Sunday, 3/17/2024, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. |
| 2/21-3/18 | Absentee voting by mail. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Monday, March 18, and received by the Board of Elections by Saturday, March 23. |
Sample ballot for Stow, Ohio
Below is a sample ballot for Stow, Ohio, with our voting recommendations for contested primaries. If you live somewhere else in Summit County, you can find your sample ballot by looking up your name on the Board of Elections website.
Details on candidates in contested races
Read about our recommendations for candidates in contested primary races, below.
Table of Contents
Local Candidates
Member of County Central Committee
Below, we’ve outlined everyone that you may see on your ballot for this race, all of whom we endorse.
Please note that the candidates in this race will vary, based on your precinct. Search your first and last name here, to find out which precinct you live in.
Unfortunately, most precincts in Stow and Munroe Falls only offer a write-in candidate, or don’t offer a candidate at all. If you don’t see your precinct below, this probably applies to you.
SC4C doesn’t have any recommendations for write-ins, since they’re specific to each precinct, but if you know of someone who’d be a good fit, please let us know!
Stow Precinct 1-E
Carla Brown
Carla is the President of the Stow-Munroe Falls Democratic Club, and she has consistently shown up for her community, by helping manage SMF N.I.C.E., a local nonprofit that has provided numerous forms of aid, such as raising $9,000 to end school lunch debt in 2018. She also makes critical and productive comments at City Council and Board of Education meetings; canvasses for progressive candidates; and advocates for various causes, such as ending gerrymandering in Ohio. We’re proud to endorse her.
Stow Precinct 2-B
Pamela Wind
Dr. Wind, Vice President of the Stow-Munroe Falls Board of Education (BoE), has shown up from the moment she was elected. She created and helped pass the Pride Resolution in 2022, which outlined measurable steps to protect queer students in SMF schools; she also helped pass Kari Suhadolnik’s Anti-racism Resolution last year, created a student representative position for the BoE, and has pushed for a stronger focus on mental health, since she herself is a staff psychologist at Kent State University.
Stow Precinct 2-D
Amber Zibritosky
Amber was formerly the Chief Prosecutor in Stow, and currently serves as the Clerk of Courts. She’s improved the way that policing is conducted in Stow, by creating the mandatory, in-house Law Enforcement Training Series, which offers methods of enforcement that are less lethal, and provides ways to de-escalate situations, as well as best practices for responding to mental health calls.
Munroe Falls Precinct 1-A
Ross Widenor
Ross, a Munroe Falls councilmember, has shown commitment to his community throughout his term, testifying in defense of ranked-choice voting, demonstrating in opposition to gerrymandering, and supporting events hosted by the City of Stow’s DEI Initiative. We wholeheartedly endorse him.
State of Ohio Candidates
State Representative (34th District)
Derrick Hall
Derrick grew up food-insecure, while living in public housing, in Akron, which has helped shape his community-centric platform.
After graduating from the University of Akron, The Ohio State University, and Harvard University, Derrick went on to serve as a Judge Advocate General in the Army Reserve; he now works in healthcare administration, and recently served as President of the Akron Public School Board.
Derrick’s platform advocates for public school funding, ending gerrymandering in Ohio, addressing disparities in healthcare, and protecting reproductive rights, among other things, and we’re happy to endorse him.
Justice of the Supreme Court
Terri Jamison
Judge Jamison is a true community advocate. After earning a B.S. in Business Administration from Franklin University, and then a Juris Doctor from Capital University, she went on to work as a trainer, eligibility officer, and fraud investigator, for daycare services; a coal miner; a small business owner; and an attorney, who advocated on behalf on individuals and their families.
She was originally elected to the Franklin County Division of Domestic Relations-Juvenile Branch, in 2012, and then was overwhelmingly re-elected, in 2018. Two years later, she was elected to the Court of Appeals, Tenth District.
Since Judge Jamison earned her Bachelor’s degree as a single parent, she created a scholarship for other single parents enrolling in college; she’s also on the Franklin University Advisory Board for Global Healthcare Education, and the Capital University Law School Board of Counselors, in addition to being a Blood Ambassador for Red Cross. We believe that, like with Derrick Hall, Judge Jamison’s community-bound roots will help her make the right decisions on the Ohio Supreme Court.
National Candidates
Delegates-at-Large and Alternates-at-Large to the National Convention (President)
No candidate (leave the bubbles blank)
While SC4C typically follows the party line, we cannot in good conscience endorse Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for the November 2024 election, because he refuses to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. If Mr. Biden changes his stance before the General Election, we’ll consider endorsing him then.