It may be early to start talking about the May Primary Election, but for the Allen County Regional Transit Authority, planning ahead has been the most crucial part for this election.

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It will be a light election in the eyes of Allen County Board of Elections Director, Kathy Meyer. That’s because the RTA is the only countywide issue to vote on. Meyer said not enough candidates filed to run so the only thing to be voted on would be issues, thus making this upcoming election a special election rather than a primary.

"Those candidates that have filed will move right on to the November election," said Meyer. "And even in the city of Lima, where they’re non-partisan, they have what they call a runoff and there’s not enough candidates to have the runoff. So in each ward, there’s two candidates that have filed and they will move on by default to the November election."

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Along with the RTA, Delphos, Bluffton and Allen East have renewal’s on the ballot. To be placed on the ballot individuals, cities or organizations have to pay a "chargeback" in the precincts they are on the ballot. They are basically the costs to put on an election. In each precinct, the board of elections is estimating it will cost around $1,000.

"Their, what we call "chargebacks," will be a little bit more, than say if they waited for the November election where there’s more on the ballot to share the cost. Whatever goes on that ballot, be it candidates or issues, that gets divided up and put to the auditors so they can charge those costs back."

There are 88 precincts in Allen County. Of those 88, 68 will only have the RTA levy on the ballot and they’ll have to cover the entire "chargeback" cost. The RTA will split the cost in the remaining 20 precincts meaning they’ll have to pay near $70,000 for the Special Election.

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The RTA decided back in October on a second attempt to pass a levy. The board of trustees voted for a .10 levy, the legal minimum they could put on the ballot. The county service had to cut weekend and night routes among other cutbacks after a failed levy in 2017.

RTA officials were unavailable for comment on this story.