RB Sigma Forms Partnership With Ohio Secretary of State to Make Elections Safe
By Terry Troy
Protecting of the integrity of the voting process during the COVID-19 pandemic has become an issue across many states, including Ohio. While officials are taking steps to expand options such as vote by mail, a majority of voters will likely still vote in person, according to the Pew Research Center.
While making it easier for people to cast ballots from their homes is vital to help stem COVID outbreaks and for ensuring that people who are quarantined or acting as caregivers can participate, our officials must be careful to maintain, and in some cases even expand, in-person voting options.
Thanks to a company from Mentor, just outside of Cleveland, in-person voting just got a whole lot safer. RB Sigma LLC recently announced a partnership with the Ohio Secretary of State to donate 463,500 surgical masks to help keep voters and poll workers safe. In accordance with Governor DeWine’s statewide mask mandate, all Ohioans are required to wear a mask at polling locations. In support of that requirement and to ease the burden on election officials preparing for the November election, this donation from RB Sigma, LLC will be a massive help to Ohio’s county boards of elections.
The masks will be delivered to every county board of elections between August 28 and September 2. All masks are produced at RB Sigma, LLC facility in Mentor.
“We are good at manufacturing things here in this state. We make things that supply the world. That resiliency is what sets Ohio apart from everyone else,” said Frank LaRose, Ohio’s Secretary of State. “No Ohioan should be afraid to come vote and the skilled Ohioans at RB Sigma are reassuring every Ohio voter by supplying these masks for voters and poll workers to use for our month of early voting and on election day.”
“I was honored to join Secretary of State Frank LaRose, State Senator John Eklund and Lake County Election Board Chairman Dale Fellows for this important announcement and applaud RB Sigma for stepping up to help keep our communities healthy during this pandemic,” said Congressman Dave Joyce (OH-14). “This critical partnership will help ensure our election officials have what they need to safely assist Ohioans in exercising their right to vote during these unprecedented times. Over the last several months, local manufacturers like RB Sigma have worked around the clock to produce and deliver essential PPE supplies across Ohio, helping us build up our domestic manufacturing base and reduce our dangerous reliance on China. Just like our medical professionals, these manufacturers are unsung heroes on the front lines of this crisis and I will continue to do everything I can at the federal level to ensure they continue to have the resources necessary to keep up their life-saving efforts.”
“RB Sigma is a company that has truly pivoted to manufacturing critical N95 and Surgical masks during the Pandemic. I feel that is my company’s role to provide as many masks as possible to those that need them,” said Justin Bloyd, President of RB Sigma, LLC. “We are honored to
partner with the Secretary of State’s office to distribute 462,000 surgical masks so that poll workers may remain safe as they volunteer their time during the November election.”
In collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and the Ohio Department of Health, Secretary of State LaRose recently issued the Ohio Voting Safety Plan to our state’s 88 county boards of elections. The 48-point plan sets forth requirements for boards of elections, as well as recommendations for voters, for how to run a safe and healthy election this fall.
While many state legislatures and policy makers are grappling with finding ways to provide the multiple voting options recommended by the CDC, Ohio finds itself in the fortunate position of needing only small changes to improve the already safe, secure, and accessible elections system that we have in place. Ohio has long offered three different ways to vote: by mail; early in-person during the four weeks preceding Election Day, including evenings and weekends; and in-person on Election Day.