LaRose orders investigation of Perry County voter check-in device

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced today the investigation of a voter check-in tablet purchased by the Perry County Board of Elections.
 
Local election officials notified the Secretary of State’s office of a newly purchased tablet-style device that violates Ohio’s election security standards. The device, often called an electronic pollbook, would have been used to check voters into a polling location but has not been deployed in an election. 
 
“I’ve directed our Election Integrity Unit and cybersecurity team to work with the Perry County Board of Elections to analyze the equipment purchased by the board,” said Secretary LaRose. “While this investigation is limited right now to a single device in one county, I’m taking the precautionary step of ordering my team to review all voter check-in systems for compliance with our security directives ahead of the May election. As an added precaution, I’m directing the boards of elections who use this specific style of pollbook to use paper pollbooks for the May election. This action will have little to no impact on voters, as we anticipate turnout to be relatively low, and I’ve always required boards of elections to have paper pollbook backups ready to go as a contingency.”
 
Electronic pollbooks are never connected to voting or tabulation equipment, so those devices are not impacted. Additionally, all voting equipment, including electronic pollbooks, undergoes rigorous, routine compliance testing before every election. The Secretary of State’s office and the 88 county boards of elections initiated that process this week ahead of in-person early voting for the May 6 primary election.
 
“We’ve made Ohio a national leader in election security, and we’re following the high standards we’ve put in place to keep our systems honest and accountable,” said Secretary LaRose. “Ohioans can rest assured that our elections are secure because of the unprecedented work we continue to do to protect them.”