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Trumbull making plans to switch to paper-and-pen voting
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
By 2019, Trumbull County voters are likely to be using another kind of voting method to cast their ballots: paper-and-pen ballots, like those now used by early voters.
It was a significant change in fall 2005 when county voters used electronic voting equipment for the first time.
Electronic machines eliminated the “hanging chads” problem that created chaos in the 2000 presidential election.
Before Trumbull County used electronic voting machines, it had the punch-card system in which the voter slid a card into a machine. Voters used a “stylus” to poke out chads. The card was later fed into a machine that counted the votes.
Now, the county’s hundreds of 12-year-old electronic voting machines are reaching the end of their useful life.
“There is no way our [voting] machines would make it through another presidential election,” said Stephanie Penrose, Trumbull County Board of Elections director, at a June meeting.
Replacement batteries cost $100. The plastic parts are degrading. And no matter how much officials across the country have tried to reassure the public that their votes are being recorded correctly, some people still don’t trust electronic voting machines.
Penrose told board members recently that state officials have not endorsed any of the electronic voting machines that manufacturers are trying to sell.
Besides that, the method that many Ohio counties are increasingly switching to – a simple paper-and-pen ballot – is much less expensive.
The cost to buy replacement electronic voting machines would be about $4.5 million, Penrose said this week. The cost to switch to paper ballots is about $1.5 million. The state provided much of the money to make the switch to electronic voting machines; it’s unclear how much the state will help with the cost this time.
The board of elections will invite the county commissioners and Auditor Adrian Biviano to join them the week of Aug. 14 and with several elections-equipment vendors to see demonstrations of their products.
Penrose said the process of voting with paper ballots will presumably involve the purchase of privacy panels on tables. The elections board uses voting booths from the punch-card era for early voting now, but does not have enough of those, Penrose said.
The elections board hopes to acquire its new voting equipment in 2018.
Meanwhile, at Tuesday’s meeting, the elections board approved the county’s social media policy for elections board employees both while on the job and off.
It prohibits employees from making comments or displays about co-workers, supervisors or the county that are “vulgar, obscene, threatening, intimidating, harassing, or a violation of the county’s workplace policies against discrimination, harassment or hostility on account of race, religion, sex, ethnicity, nationality, disability, military status or other protected class or characteristic.”
The elections board hopes to add other language to the policy in the coming months specific to the elections board, such as restrictions on politics.
Board of elections member Ron Knight said political commentary by elections board officials could undermine the public’s confidence in the legitimacy of the elections.