The Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating difficulties a number of voters faced last week as they sought to weigh in on controversial local and state ballot issues.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted called for the investigation in light of hurdles voters faced Nov. 3. Those problems led to an order to keep polls in the county open an extra hour and a half. While the board’s investigation continues ahead of a Dec. 11 deadline, officials say the county’s new electronic voting system might have played a role.
For some in Hamilton County, voting was arduous, with technical glitches forcing voters to cast provisional ballots and imprecise information given by poll workers sending
other voters scrambling. At least some of these problems, officials say, were likely caused by a mistake involving an erroneous date entered into the electronic system that left it unable to recognize voters who registered after that date.
The difficulties could spell trouble during next year’s sure-to-be-contentious presidential election, where Ohio will play a central role.
Voters reported problems with the county’s new voting system in the West End, Madisonville, Evanston, Northside, Clifton, Corryville, Mount Lookout, Roselawn, Hyde Park and other areas. The system, which relies on tablet computers to scan IDs and check in voters, hasn’t been used before.
On the night of the election, Husted put the entire state’s election results on hold so the county could extend voting times until 9 p.m. The order for polls to stay open an extra two hours came from Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert P. Ruehlman in response to injunctions from Issue 3-backers ResponsibleOhio and former State Sen. Eric Kerney, who cited long lines at some polling stations.
The appeals to the court came after voters in a number of precincts throughout the county reported that, though they had registered to vote months prior, the new electronic voting system employed by the county did not recognize their names and would not allow them to cast electronic ballots, even if their registration was confirmed by written voter logs. Some were asked to cast provisional ballots or to head to the Hamilton County Board of Elections office downtown.
Jane Pendergrast of Delhi Township reported on Twitter that she had to cast a provisional ballot after her name didn’t show up in the e-poll books. Pendergrast said a poll worker told her the same difficulties had happened to about 50 other voters at the polling location.
Kevin LeMasters voted at one of the county’s largest polling locations, the Corryville Recreation Center. That voting location serves more than 1,700 voters. He says poll workers there were requiring voters to fill out provisional ballots if the address on their IDs did not match information in the Board of Election’s electronic system, despite the fact that’s not what BOE rules stipulate.
“What concerns me is, this particular location is the second-largest polling location … and should be staffed appropriately,” LeMasters said in an email. “It is situated close to UC’s campus where the large majority of students do not have an ID with the same address, considering the fluid nature of their housing. Malice or ignorance, it is unacceptable either way.”
Meanwhile, other poll workers were confused by ID requirements and asked voters to cast provisional ballots unnecessarily, some voters say. The provisional ballots aren’t counted until much later unless the elections are close, leading some voters to feel like their votes didn’t matter.
Originally, Secretary of State Husted signaled that the polling systems seemed to be working fine. He visited Hamilton County polling locations earlier in the day Nov. 3, when difficulties voting were already being reported. Husted blamed poll-worker error for the problems, despite the fact many seemed to be technical in nature and had much to do with the new electronic system used to gather votes.
“By and large, it’s working great,” Husted said at the time. “Any time you have a massive technology change, you’re going to have some problems.”
Cincinnati City Councilwoman Yvette Simpson pushed back at Husted’s assertion via social media, saying constituents were reporting that tablets used in vote gathering were freezing or not connecting to the Internet — technical problems that aren’t necessarily due to poll-worker error.
When the dust cleared after the election, Husted acknowledged problems occurred and ordered an investigation.
“As election officials, it is our duty to separate the facts from fiction and learn from every experience to ensure each election is run better than the last,’’ Husted said in a letter to the county’s four-member election board.
Other, non-technical difficulties also popped up. In Northside, some voters found themselves locked out of a polling location around 7:30 p.m., even though it was ordered to stay open until 9. Eventually, voters there were able to gain entry to the location, which poll workers said had been locked by school staff.
The voting difficulties are the latest chapter in Ohio’s fraught struggle over voting access. Voting rights advocates have fought state efforts to reduce voting hours in recent elections, especially in urban areas.
“Hamilton County’s issue reminds us again that we’re putting too little time into making voting work for everyone,” civil rights leader Jesse Jackson told The Cincinnati Enquirer Nov. 9. “It’s not that complicated. Let everyone participate.”
Hamilton County Board of Elections members said no voters appear to have lost the opportunity to vote due to the difficulties. But questions linger about the electronic system, which is set to go statewide next year, just as the country focuses on Ohio and its pivotal role in deciding an especially heated presidential election.
“It’s our responsibility to correct,” Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune said following a board of elections meeting Nov. 7.
Portune called for an independent, nonpartisan review of polling practices and training given to poll workers: “We need to make sure that we can answer to the state and to the nation that Hamilton County, which will be a battleground, if not the battleground, county in the presidential election next year, that we don’t have any problems at all in how this election is conducted.” ©
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2015.