Wood County using paper pollbooks for May primary

WOOD COUNTY, Ohio — The Wood County Board of Elections says it will use paper pollbooks at all 27 voting locations in the county for the May 6 primary due to an issue with an electronic voter check-in device in central Ohio under investigation by Secretary of State Frank LaRose's office.

Voters in Wood County should be prepared slower-normal-lines at the polls due to the slower paper process, the BOE advised. The check-in stations will be alphabetized by last name and an election official will need to activate each voting unit for each voter.

Pollbooks are solely for maintaining voter registration information and do not count votes, and the BOE says the switch to paper will not affect the voting machines themselves.

"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 Terry Burton, deputy director for Wood County BOE. "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."



https://www.wtol.com/article/news/politics/elections/wood-county-paper-pollbooks-may-6-primary-election/512-21fcaaff-c011-4efe-b2cb-72fc1eedb6f9