Voting is underway in communities across the Miami Valley this Election Day. In Greene County, elections officials reported light turnout and no major issues with the county’s new voting machines.
Llyn McCoy, director of the Greene County Board of Elections, said precinct officials ironed out some minor issues with the new voting equipment, which combine paper and computer voting and finish by printing each voter's completed ballot.
"[The] problems this morning were with the poll pads used to check in voters, and the main problem was the precinct election officials weren’t putting in a card into the poll pad correctly. They were putting it in upside down. So that was resolved quickly," she said.
Marie Gonzalez-Slattery voted with her husband. She said they were a little confused by the new hybrid system but got the hang of it.
"We didn't know what to do at first, but then we realized you had to read these instructions and that helped," she said. "It's similar like before. But you get to see your results on the edge. There is like a panel and then you have to hit the button more times. I think that might be confusing for some people -- you have to hit it more times, not just print once. You have to print it twice."
Yellow Springs resident Aaron Engler voted around lunchtime and said he’d like to see more people come out to vote in non-presidential, local races.
“It's important," he said, "because they affect you locally instead of the big national events. I think it’s very important that you vote in every election but especially your local election, you know, even for the smaller election.”
Montgomery County also debuted new voting machines today. Election officials said there were some minor issues early in the day on Tuesday, but no major problems with the equipment were reported.
"I thought the new voting machines were really easy. It walks you right through what to do and you deposit your ballot after you're done, very quick and easy," said Kelly Jenkins, who voted in Miami Township with her husband Steve at Zion Memorial Church of Christ on S. Dixie Dr.
"It was basically self-explanatory," Steve Jenkins said, "[the machine] just told us what to do."
Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Jan Kelly told WYSO a Kettering poll supervisor was escorted from the St. Albert The Great Church polling location without incident after the worker failed to follow site and voting protocols.
The worker's removal was a standard precautionary procedure and the worker has not been arrested or charged with a crime, Kelly said.
"She wouldn't take direction from us to fix a problem that she was experiencing with the poll pad and just being a nuisance and voters were concerned, and she was just creating a lot of havoc and making it difficult for voters to vote at the polling location," she said, "and for the rest of the poll workers to continue with their job and have a smooth flow of voters coming in and out and to be able to vote without harassment or hassle."
Kelly stressed that voters have no reason to be concerned about their vote being counted correctly after the incident.
"We immediately sent out a full-time person that works with us as a rover every year along with all voting location managers that are assigned to that area, just to ensure that everything was running smoothly," she said, "and the tallies tonight will be downloaded by the person that we replaced her with and we're comfortable with that."
Polls are open Tuesday until 7:30. For information on how and where to vote contact your county Board of Elections office or the Ohio Secretary of State’s website.
-The Montgomery County Board of Elections website
-The Greene County Board of Elections website
-The Clark County Board of Elections website
