COLUMBUS, Ohio — Less than two hours after polls opened throughout Ohio at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, reports started coming in that some polling locations were having issues during the check-in process.
“Our command center has gotten some reports of problems with the check-in poll pads at Cuyahoga County voting locations," Secretary of State Frank LaRose told 3News' Carmen Blackwell. "Effectively, it’s an iPad-type device that’s used to check a voter in when they arrive."
LaRose said there's always a backup plan in place. This includes the old-fashioned paper method, which LaRose said could cause a slight delay at the polls.
“We’re not getting any reports of long lines at polling locations, so there’s no reason to be concerned about going out and voting," he added. "It may take a few extra minutes, so do be patient with your poll workers."
His comments come after the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections confirmed issues at some polling locations at 7:45 a.m. with the following statement:
When voters are issued ballots, the poll workers record the stub number. The electronic poll books that are used to scan and record ballot stub numbers are not automatically recording the stub numbers.
This does not affect the ability of voters to cast ballots.
Poll workers are entering the stub numbers into the electronic poll books manually or recording the stub numbers on back-up paper poll books.
The Board of Elections is working on the issue and wants to thank voters for their patience. Again, this does not affect the ability of voters to cast ballots.
Then, by 8:10 a.m., the issue appeared to be resolved based on this follow-up tweet from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
"If any voter left a polling location today without voting, please return prior to 7:30 p.m. to cast your ballot," the BOE posted. "All electronic poll books ar enow able to automatically record ballot stub numbers. At no time were ballots not able to be read by a ballot scanner."
The polls remain open statewide until 7:30 p.m.
“This is the kind of thing that we warned the General Assembly about and that we warned the other members of the redistricting commission about," LaRose said of the morning polling issues. "Because of the delays related to litigation, because of the delays in getting finalized congressional districts and the uncertainty with state legislative districts, our boards of elections had to compress, really, about 90 days worth of work into less than 60 days.”