Voters in Licking County and 46 other Ohio counties who cast ballots in the May 6 election will check in using paper pollbooks rather than the iPad tablets many are accustomed to using.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose directed boards of elections to use paper after the Perry County Board of Elections determined that a new electronic pollbook, which had never been used in an election, was not functioning properly.
LaRose’s cybersecurity team is working with the Perry County board to investigate, according to Brian Mead, director of the Licking County Board of Elections, who explained the situation to board members during their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, April 7.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the secretary has directed all Ohio counties that use this specific style of electronic pollbook to use paper pollbooks for the May election,” Mead told the board.
Voting machines are not affected, and the switch to paper pollbooks for check-in will not affect those who vote early, said BOE deputy director Tess Wigginton.
“We don’t use electronic pollbooks for early voting and never have,” she said.
Early voting begins on Tuesday, April 8, at the board of elections office at 20 S. 2nd Street in Newark. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through April 25, 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. from April 28-May 2, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, May 4. On Election Day, May 6, polls will be open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Mead said nothing will change regarding identification requirements: Voters need to show a current, unexpired photo ID as detailed on the board of elections website.
| Read more: Many issues and few contested races on the May 6 ballot in Licking County https://www.thereportingproject.org/many-issues-and-few-contested-races-on-the-may-6-ballot-in-licking-county/
Jamie Snider, director of the Perry County Board of Elections, said her office purchased new pollbooks in December and they arrived at the end of February.
“They hadn’t been used in an election,” she said, adding that they were never connected to voting machines. “In unpacking them and setting them up, we had one showing some irregularities.”
She said her office reported the irregularities to the secretary of state’s office, which began an investigation with Perry County and the vendor. LaRose’s office asked that no details about the irregularities be released until the investigation is complete, Snider said.
The switch to paper pollbooks, which is a return to how many Ohioans checked in at the polls in the past, will be easier to manage on May 6 than it might have been during some other elections, Mead said.
“We don’t expect delays because we don’t expect a big turnout,” he said.
Turnout is expected to be about 10%, Mead said, which would be about 12,000 of the 125,000 registered voters in Licking County.
Wigginton said voters will find two check-in lines at the polls – one for those whose last names are in the first half of the alphabet and the other for those in the second half.
Snider said that poll workers in Perry County have not used paper pollbooks since 2015, and some have never used them.
“This will give us an opportunity to test our contingency plans,” she said.
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.