As of midday on Friday, 10,353 Wood County voters had already cast their early ballots at the county courthouse complex. That is an 11% increase in early voters compared to the last presidential election four years ago, according to Terry Burton, director of the Wood County Board of Elections.
Friday morning, one voter alerted the board of an issue with her voting machine that did not allow her to vote for her chosen candidate with the stylus given to mark ballots. The voter, Leslie Madaras, of Bowling Green, said a poll worker advised her to mark her selected candidate with her finger rather than the stylus. That worked, Madaras said, but she had concerns that other voters might be experiencing the same issue.
“I fear I’m not the only one who had this experience,” she said.
“I don’t want to imply the board of elections isn’t doing a good job,” Madaras said, adding that the office was receptive to her concerns. But the problem could be easily remedied by advising voters to use their fingers if the stylus doesn’t work, she said. And hand sanitizer could be provided for those interested, she added.
Burton stressed there are no widespread concerns. He said the board of elections has received two complaints during the three weeks of early voting – one Thursday and the other today – about the voting machines not marking the votes made by a stylus. In both cases, the voters were instructed by poll workers to use their fingers to mark their ballots. Once their ballots were cast, the screens were cleaned and the issue resolved.
“We’ve not had any indication that fingers don’t work,” Burton said, noting that some people prefer using a stylus for voting due to health concerns.
Madaras said she was concerned that some voters might not be persistent when their vote doesn’t register on the screen. She also expressed worry that some candidates may have an unfair advantage. (Before switching over to using a finger, Madaras said her vote for the Democratic candidate in a state legislative race could not be cast with the stylus, though when she tried it on the Republican candidate it recorded the vote.)
But Burton said the voting screen changes with every group, and candidates’ names rotate.
