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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > February > 29 > Entry
4 million Ohio voters expected to cast ballots
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner made lots of changes to prepare for the March 4 primary but one practice she has yet to vanquish is “sleep-overs” where poll workers in some counties are allowed to pick up voting machines on Friday and keep them until election day.
In recent years, a poll worker in Licking County had a machine at home, figured he wouldn’t have time to vote on election day, so he opened the machine and voted, she said. He got caught.
Brunner’s office has instituted a strict chain of custody procedure for all voting machines, which are now sealed with tape with serial numbers. Tampering with a voting machine is a felony, she noted. She hopes to eliminate sleep overs by the November election.
Brunner predicted voter turn out on Tuesday would hit 52 percent — about 4 million voters. She said about 10- to 20-percent of the votes would be cast by absentee ballot.
“The interest is so great in this election because of the particular candidates involved,” she said. “We’re seeing people vote who have never voted in a primary.”
Brunner’s office ordered county boards of elections to have paper ballots on hand in case voters preferred paper over electronic touch-screen machines.
“It’s up to individual preference. I myself will be asking for a paper ballot. I had an experience in the last election where my electronic ballot was different than another ballot in the precinct for the same race. I am more comfortable with a paper ballot,” Brunner said.
Brunner said the secretary of state’s office has improved communications with county boards of elections, distributed four million cards for poll workers to give to voters who want to comment about their voting experience, improved maintenance of the statewide voter registration database, and beefed up the web site to accommodate more than 60 million anticipated hits during the March primary.
She declined to predict whether timely results would be available in Cuyahoga County, where touch-screen machines have been recently replaced along with the board of elections members and top staff.
When asked what advice she has for voters on Tuesday, Brunner said, “Give yourself plenty of time to vote in case there are lines. We’re working hard to ensure there are not. Learn about the candidates and issues so you can make an informed decision.”
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