Policies, plan reviewed

The Miami County Board of Elections spent five hours Saturday, April 13, reviewing proposed written policies and an Election Administration Plan, all required by the Ohio Secretary of State following an investigation into the November election in which 6,282 ballots were not counted.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose said earlier this month the uncounted votes were the result of human error, not malice or a technical issue. The failure of staff to properly shut down voting machines used at the elections office for early voting resulted in the ballots not being counted, the report said.

Ian Ridgeway, deputy elections director, told the board Saturday the procedure used to shut down machines following the early voting is now different following a change in the law on challenging the eligibility of an early voter. “We can shut them (machines) down exactly the same way we shut down the machines at polling locations. So, the issue we had in November won’t be an issue,” Ridgeway said.

The investigation report said the board failed to provide proper training, maintain policies and procedures for election administration and review a detailed report of election results for discrepancies or errors, the report said. The missing ballots were found in December and added to vote totals. The mistake did not cause any changes in election outcomes.

The board, which remains under administrative oversight by the Secretary of State’s Office, is required to submit by Friday, April 19, the policies and the plan to that office. Changes made by the board Saturday will be submitted to county prosecutors for review. The board will meet again Wednesday to approve final wording before the policies and plan are submitted. Among a dozen policies reviewed were machine shutdown, ballot and document proofing, social media and reconciliation of votes.

NANCY BOWMAN, CONTRIBUTING WRITER