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Trumbull elections board considers voting upgrade
By Jordan Cohen
WARREN
The Trumbull County elections board is on the verge of following its counterparts in Mahoning County by purchasing electronic poll books for precinct voting.
The Trumbull board met in special session Thursday to discuss the possibility.
“I’m excited about this,” said Kathi Creed, board chairwoman. “These tablets can even tell voters if they’re at the correct precinct.”
Mahoning board members, who have praised the tablets for helping speed up the voting process, purchased 200 electronic poll books for $289,000 but limited their use to several precincts in last May’s primary.
Stephanie Penrose, Trumbull deputy director, said she received a cost estimate from one poll book provider of $305,000, considerably higher than paid by Mahoning, a larger county.
A county’s size, however, does not determine tablet costs, said Perry Alexandrides, Ohio Secretary of State regional liaison.
“[Mahoning County] has super locations where there could be five or six different precincts, and that helps reduce the costs,” Alexandrides explained. Election representatives said they believe the maximum number of precincts in Trumbull voting locations is four.
The board is considering a test run of the tablets as early as this November’s election. Directors hope for countywide use in the March 2016 primary with its large numbers of candidates and offices.
Board member Ronald Knight warned of future election-day problems if the system is not fully functional well before November 2016.
“Do you want to be implementing this in the 2016 presidential election?” he asked. “It’s one bad choice or another.”
As part of their research, board members plan to attend poll-book demonstrations by several vendors in Lisbon on Tuesday. Several expect to watch the tablets in action during a special election Aug. 4 in Canfield.
“We have to do this and automate our system,” said board member Mark Alberini.
In another issue involving technology, Penrose said a directive from Secretary of State John Husted requires elections boards to update their websites no later than Sept.18 to enable absentee voters to track their votes.
Currently, that service is available only for military absentees in Trumbull County.
Penrose said Mike Dibble, information-technology director for Niles, has offered to create links to the county voter database where the information will be accessed. Board members say they will ask Dibble for a timeline to make certain the system is updated by Husted’s deadline.