Secretary of State issues statewide standards for county boards of elections purchasing electronic pollbooks
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted today established uniform standards for the use of electronic pollbooks (e-pollbooks) for all 88 county boards of elections.
Advisory 2013-04 clearly defines system requirements and functionalities, as well as procedures for county boards of elections to follow when acquiring e-pollbook technology.
“E-pollbooks will further modernize Ohio’s elections system, providing a benefit to both elections officials and voters alike by streamlining the process,” Secretary Husted said.
“As more counties choose to take advantage of this technology we must have clear and consistent guidelines in place in order to maintain the high level of security and accuracy Ohio voters expect.”
For several years, Ohio lawmakers have been looking at options for statewide standards for e-pollbooks. While Secretary Husted is supportive of these efforts and hopeful that eventually the legislature will be able to pass a law, he is establishing rules now so that county boards of elections have guidance as more of them are investing in this new technology.
E-pollbooks eliminate the need for poll workers to flip through bulky printed pollbooks to locate a voter. Instead, when a voter arrives at a polling location to cast a ballot, e-pollbooks allow elections officials to quickly and easily pull up the voter’s information by either entering their name or by simply scanning an identification card, like a driver’s license.
Counties already using e-pollbooks have reported a decrease in the amount of time it takes for a voter to check in at a polling location.
For example, elections officials in Montgomery County have indicated that prior to using e-pollbooks, the average check-in time for voters was 2-3 minutes. Using e-pollbooks, the county was able to cut the wait time by 80 percent to an average of 30 seconds during the 2012 Presidential Election.
Currently, 12 counties are using e-pollbooks. Those counties include: Athens, Butler, Carroll, Hancock, Henry, Highland, Licking, Mercer, Montgomery, Richland, Stark and Washington.