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'Voting in Ohio is safe, secure' assures Warren County elections official

At the Miami County Board of Election, officials run accuracy and logic testing on voting machines before the 2024 Early Voting and final election day on November 5. Warren County BOE follows the same security procedures.
Miami County
At the Miami County Board of Election, officials run accuracy and logic testing on voting machines before the 2024 Early Voting and final election day on November 5.
Warren County BOE follows the same security procedures.

With less than a week before Nov. 5, almost 1.7 million Ohioans have cast their ballot in early voting.

However, across the state, some are concerned about ballot security.

WYSO’s Kathryn Mobley spoke with
Brian Sleeth, director of the Warren County Board of Elections, about why voters should feel confident that Ohio’s voting process is secure.

Brian Sleeth: It all starts with having a bipartisan team at the polling location at all times. Voting machines and ballots can never be alone in a room. All of our machines go through extensive logic and accuracy testing before they leave my facility here to make sure each machine can read accurately before leaving our office and we use tamper proof seals all over the machine.

Our workers show up at the facility, access their machine in double locked in a cage. They get it out and make sure that all of our tamper proof seals have not been touched because once it's been removed from our security gate, they can never be left alone.

Mobley: After a voter casts their ballot–what happens to the ballot?

Sleeth: The machine ballots and the voting machine are locked with a red plastic seal. So throughout the day, the poll workers keep an eye on that machine.

At the end of the night, a Democrat and a Republican election official close the polls, remove the ballots from that machine, removing the memory stick, and then they actually ride together in the same vehicle, bringing back the ballots and the memory sticks that are zipped and locked up and a security bag back to my office. And then when it gets back to my office, I check the security seal that was used at the polling location to make sure that it was not tampered with. Only then can I read the election results in our system.

"Voting in Ohio is safe, secure, and everybody can make sure that their ballot is 100% counted."

Mobley: After election day, there’s another security level–talk about that.

Sleeth: Once these ballots and memory sticks come back to our office, they are locked in our ballot vault at all times. Our ballot vault cannot be accessed. Unless there's a member of each party present, we each have a key to get into the vault, and it's under 24-hour security surveillance. We also have surveillance cameras in our office and we have tamper proof glass. Also important to note, our tabulation equipment does not have the capability to be connected to the internet. So we have nothing to worry about regarding our machines getting any type of viruses or anything else.

In addition, we follow a strict policy from the Secretary of State's Office that I can never reuse a memory stick. I'm only allowed to use branded memory sticks and it's a one-time use only when I plug it into our tabulation system.

While our tabulation system is not connected to the Internet, our results do have to get out to the Internet. For this, I have to use a brand new memory stick to capture the final tabulation information and use it to put the information out there on the Internet. So two separate systems, completely air gapped.

Mobley: Brian, when you hear individuals doubting the security of the U.S. election system. saying there's already voter fraud and we're just getting started. What is your reaction to that?

Sleeth: They've never worked in a board of elections office. I'm an Ohio resident. I am in charge of the board of elections in Ohio. All Ohio election officials follow the same rules and procedures. They all go through the same type of testing all the way back to the beginning.

They're certified by the Elections Assistance Commission and then the state of Ohio has an independent testing laboratory that certifies voting machines before we're allowed to even purchase them.

A voting machine, it's a computer. You can manipulate computers. But you can't manipulate any election equipment. It's been in a bipartisan environment under 24-hour surveillance. Security recordings and the environment that it's in, the procedures we have. Again, we feel that our voting machines here are safe.

Voting in Ohio is safe, secure, and everybody can make sure that their ballot is 100% counted. If they filled in a number correctly on the ballot, then their vote will absolutely count.

Kathryn Mobley is an award-winning broadcast journalist, crafting stories for more than 30 years. She’s reported and produced for TV, NPR affiliate and for the web. Mobley also contributes to several area community groups. She sings tenor with World House Choir (Yellow Springs), she’s a board member of the Beavercreek Community Theatre and volunteers with two community television operations, DATV (Dayton) and MVCC (Centerville).

Email: kmobley@wyso.org
Cell phone: (937) 952-9924