Poll equipment forbidden in workers’ homes, cars

Mahoning County election workers are not affected by Brunner’s order.

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

Poll workers in Trumbull and Columbiana counties will no longer be permitted to have voting equipment spend the weekend with them before the election under a directive issued by the secretary of state.

It’s been a long-standing tradition in Trumbull County to give presiding judges in each of its voting precincts all election equipment, closed with “tamper-evident seals,” the weekend before the election, said Kelly Pallante, its elections board director.

But Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive Tuesday forbidding the practice.

The directive reads in part: “The storage of voting machines for any period of time at a poll worker’s home, place of work or automobile does not assure the voters of Ohio of the accountability that meets requisite standards of security and safe storage of voting machines.”

The Trumbull board will meet Tuesday to discuss a new policy for the voting equipment, Pallante said.

Overall, at least 23 of Ohio’s 88 counties permitted polling workers to take voting machines home with them before Election Day.

David Johnson, the chairman of the Columbiana County Board of Elections, said poll workers there now get materials from the election board in Lisbon the day before elections and take them home.

That includes the computerized ballot counter.

The counter for each precinct is counted once the materials are returned to the board on election night.

Johnson said he could not recall any problems with the materials being taken home the night before the election.

The large metal containers that receive the paper ballots are delivered to precincts before election day.

Johnson said the counters and containers could be delivered together, but that could cost more money.

Johnson said the board will comply with Brunner’s order, but it may make election days longer for workers.

“It’s hard enough to get poll workers,” he said.

The board will meet at 1 p.m. Thursday to discuss the issue.

No poll workers in Mahoning County are permitted to take the machines home before Election Day, said Joyce Kale-Pesta, its deputy elections director.

The changes Brunner ordered are meant to address actual security concerns — including the fear that machines could be tampered with — and national perceptions of Ohio’s election system, which has come under fire in recent years, Brunner said.

“We want Ohio’s voters and the rest of the nation to see that we have prepared a transparent process of transporting voting equipment, ballots and supplies,” Brunner said in a statement.

Brunner was elected in 2006 with a promise to improve a system marred by scattered problems of long lines and poorly trained poll workers.

Local election officials argued the sleepover practice makes it easier to transport machines to polling sites.

Otherwise, they would have to hire moving companies to distribute the machines at a cost of thousands of dollars.

Brunner said federal money will reimburse counties for the added cost, which she expects to be about $100,000 statewide.

Elections officials also will be allowed to transport and store the machines at polling places ahead of time, provided the sites have fire protection equipment and other security measures.

XCONTRIBUTORS: Vindicator staff writers David Skolnick and D.A. Wilkinson