Early voting is underway
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Early voting has begun in Ohio, with new equipment in use in preparation for the May 2 primary election.
Belmont County Election Director Aaron Moore reported to the Board of Elections Monday.
"It has been a lot more efficient and quicker out there," Moore said. "You come in now, you state your name and address and show identification. You show your driver's license -- we have a driver's license scanner that will look you up in our system. It pulls you up, and you're ready to sign in. We have a signature pad now that the voter can verify their name and address."
He said this is the first election for the signature pad.
"I think it's very easy. We haven't had any issues with our voters so far using it," he said.
Moore also reported the board staff will begin cybersecurity training as mandated by the state.
"That is just our yearly security training we have to do. All of our staff as well as the board members, we all have to go through a yearly training," he said. "It's just a requirement we do every year to make sure we're up to date. … Our office follows every security directive that is issued out to us, and we believe we are following it to a T. I believe our office is secure."
Regarding security, Moore said the incident last election when two instances of attempted "double voting" were caught has been resolved, with authorities finding "zero fraudulent intent."
"Two people, they voted absentee and when they showed up to the polls they voted provisionally, so we were able to stop that and check that so they did not vote twice," he said. "We did our research information on that. We handed it over to the sheriff's office, who were supposed to investigate it themselves. They did their own research. They believe these two voters weren't attempting to vote twice, it was a misunderstanding."
In other matters of security, police will be available at all of the polling locations as usual.
Training for poll workers has also begun and is expected to be completed this week.
"We only have again 17 precincts," he said, adding classes are slightly shorter than the usual two to three hours, and all of the poll workers on duty will be veterans of prior elections. "It's a refresher of everything they already know, and we do spend a lot more time specifically talking about the identification changes."
Moore referred to Ohio House Bill 458, which changed the acceptable forms of voter identification, requiring a driver's license or state-issued identification card, a military ID or a passport rather than utility bills, a bank statement or other governmental documents.
Early voting began April 4 and will continue through the weekend before the election.
"We no longer have early voting the Monday before the election. The hours that were originally the Monday before the election have been allocated to the week before," Moore said.
He said so far about 50 people have voted in the office, while 60-70 mailed ballots have been received.
"We've had a consistent amount of mail-out ballots and in-person voting. I wouldn't say the numbers are very high, but for an election with only 17 precincts open, we've seen a good number," Moore said.
The next meeting will be held on Election Day, May 2, at the board office, 52180 National Road East, St. Clairsville.