Board of Election officials see no trouble at polls

New scanners will be used for the first time.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- The Columbiana County Board of Elections has canceled its traditional pre-election meeting in the expectation that next week's primary will go smoothly.
The pre-election meeting traditionally focused on making sure everything was ready. The board set the meeting for today, then canceled it.
County voters on Tuesday will be using electronic scanners to count ballots for the first time.
"I don't think it will be a problem," said new board member, Chairman Larry Bowersock.
Instead of punching holes in a punch card, voters will fill in ovals with pens or pencils, and then run the ballot through the scanner.
The scanner will even tell voters if they under or over-voted.
Longtime elections worker and deputy director Lois Gall was named elections director in March. She and former director John Payne, now the deputy, will rotate positions every two years in an arrangement common in the state.
Gall said she was also confident that things will go well. The board recently finished training 465 poll workers on the use of the scanners, she said.
Write-in push
The primary race includes a huge push by Charlie Wilson as a write-in candidate in the Democratic race for the 6th Congressional District. Wilson's initial petitions fell short of the needed 50 valid signatures.
Wilson's print and television ads have explained how to use the scanners in Columbiana County, where voters would have to write in his name, and other counties in the district where voters would have to type it in. Columbiana County officials don't expect voters will be asking for a keyboard.
"There have been no calls or confusion," Gall said. "Everything's been pretty quiet."
Portions of the new system will be delivered to polls Monday. The scanners will be picked up at the elections board Tuesday. All will be sealed.
The new scanners are expected to have results by about 9 p.m. election night. But a large number of write-in candidates last November kept final results from being done until six hours after the polls closed.
Gall said she is waiting for instructions from the Ohio secretary of state's office on whether election workers will have to remain after the polls close to check each write in-vote.
The scanner will detect a write-in vote but cannot read the written name. The vote is counted if elections workers determine the voter's intent.
wilkinson@vindy.com