ALLEN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - More and more people are being called for not showing up for jury duty in Allen County.
Contempt of court hearings have continued in Allen County Common Pleas Court with more residents explaining to judges the reasons that they did not show up for their jury summons. A common explanation that has appeared in court has been a lack of updated registration when it comes to a person's address. The court takes the addresses that have been submitted to the Allen County Board of Elections when sending out a summons, but sometimes the latest information on an individual's registration remains outdated.
"Every year we get a national change of address notification through the secretary of state," explained Kathy Meyer, Allen County Board of Elections director. "They match them up to our registration and we send them confirmation notices to see if they still live there and if they still want to be registered. If they moved, they can send the correct address to us. Unfortunately, people move around a lot, unfortunately, those mitigations never make it to them."
The board of elections wants to remind residents to always have their information up to date. The court can also use other methods and agencies in order to get jurors.
"They have a process of running through and choosing people randomly for the jury pool, and we send that file up to the clerk of courts. The other way they can choose jurors is through the BMV. They can pull people off the street, there's many ways that they can choose. But people need to take that seriously," added Meyer.
More contempt of court hearings are currently scheduled to be held in front of both Allen County Court judges.
