The Wood County Board of Elections will be using paper books to process voters for the May 6 election. Precinct election officials will be looking up voters by hand and voters will use paper pollbooks to check-in for voting at all 27 voting locations in Wood County. This is due to an ongoing investigation of an electronic check-in or pollbook unit in Perry County.
In late March, Perry County election officials notified the Secretary of State’s office of concerns that a newly purchased electronic pollbook may not meet Ohio’s election security standards. While the unit had not been deployed in an election, precautionary steps to review all voter check-in systems for compliance with the security directives were mandated by Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
In addition, out of an abundance of caution, LaRose directed the boards of elections that use this specific style of pollbook, including Wood County, to use paper poll books for the May election.
Electronic poll books are never connected to voting or tabulation equipment, so those devices are not impacted. Additionally, all voting equipment, including electronic pollbooks, undergo rigorous, routine compliance testing before every election.
Voters should be prepared to possibly see longer lines at their voting locations on May 6, as the process to check in will be slowed using a paper pollbook. Voters will see check-in stations alphabetically by last name, and the voting units will need to be activated for each voter by precinct election officials.
“While this change was not of our choice, our board has contingency plans in place for a transition to use paper pollbooks in an emergency scenario and our staff implemented that plan,” said Wood County Board of Elections Deputy Director Terry Burton. “We anticipate this to be a one off and expect to be back to business as normal for November, but ask for people’s patience with our precinct officials at the polls as they work through the manual process.”
Voters may still opt to vote early at the Wood County Courthouse from now until Sunday, May 4. Early voting hours are listed at https://voteohio.gov.
Voters should note identification requirements will be the same as November. Voters will still need a current, unexpired photo ID. Acceptable IDs are: Ohio driver’s license, State of Ohio ID card, interim ID form issued by the Ohio BMV, a U.S. passport, a U.S. passport card, U.S. military ID card, Ohio National Guard ID card, or U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID card.
Two voting locations have been moved for May:
- Perrysburg Township voters who have been voting at the Rossford Elementary have been permanently moved to: Rossford Schools, the “R,” 28600 Lime City Road, Perrysburg.
- Northwood city voters who have been voting at the Northwood Schools Administrative Building have been permanently moved to: Northwood Community Center, 3700 Main St., Northwood.
