Local voters will see changes at the polls

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Registered voters in Van Wert County who go to the polls in-person early or on Election Day will see new equipment, starting with the March 19 primary election.

Pam Henderson, Director of the Van Wert County Board of Elections, said poll workers will use “epollbooks” when greeting voters.

“They are an electronic pollbook, a tablet,” Henderson explained. “It provides a quicker and easy check-in. Epollbooks have been around for quite awhile, 2015 or before. In Ohio, there are 84 counties that use epollbooks and now Van Wert County will too.”

Grant money was made available from the Van Wert County Commissioners and the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.

“In September, we ordered epollbooks,” Henderson said. “They were delivered January 12, and initialized on February 6. We just had training yesterday (Tuesday) and now we will have training for our poll workers this Friday, Monday, and Tuesday right before early voting starts on February 21.”

Local voters will also see Expressvote voting kiosks that were literally given to Van Wert County free of charge.

“They are a ballot marking device which is also ADA compliant,” Henderson explained. “Actually, our clerks and I visited Lucas County back in June to see how epollbooks worked during the special election that they had. Lucas County had a surplus of ExpressVote kiosks and offered them to us for free. We now have 125 of them.”

“So now, when voters come in to early vote or election day, they will sign in and receive a ballot card with their precinct barcode printed on it,” she continued. “They will put that ballot card into the ExpressVote and follow the screen prompts for voting. They can review their selections and make changes before printing on their ballot. Once they print their ballot, they will place it in the DS200 scanner.”

Henderson added that the voting kiosks will go through a test run before the start of early voting.

“All voting equipment is tested prior to every election,” Henderson stated. “It’s a process called Logic & Accuracy (L&A). They are locked up in the early vote room with security cameras, plus, they are not attached to the internet – the only information on it are the ballots. The voters make their marks on the screen and prints it.”

“They do not store a voter’s ballot selections,” she added. “We were told at training that they are a ‘big pencil’ that marks your ballot only.”

Mail-in absentee ballots will still be pre-printed ballots.