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http://www.ohio.com/news/94622934.htmlPrinter error has Summit recounting absentee ballots by hand
By Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 06:20 p.m. EDT, May 21, 2010
Summit County elections board employees will be working this weekend to count 8,000 absentee ballots by hand, thanks to a printer error.
The ballots were produced on a ballot-on-demand printer that incorrectly lined up the issues portion of some ballots. This meant the ovals filled in by voters were skewed, making it impossible for the optical-scan machines to read them properly.
Board employees discovered the problem Wednesday when doing remakes on ballots that had been improperly filled out by voters.
Board supervisors decided every absentee ballot should be counted by hand because they all had been printed on a ballot-on-demand printer.
''We're going to make sure every vote is counted,'' said Deputy Director Ron Koehler.
Employees must finish the count by Tuesday morning, when the board is scheduled to certify the results of the May 4 primary.
Summit County is among 35 Ohio counties that use an optical-scan voting process, in which voters fill in ovals on paper ballots, much like a multiple choice test. The ballots are then scanned into a computer and the votes are tallied.
When the ballots' problem was discovered, Koehler consulted with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office about how to proceed.
Kevin Kidder, a spokesman for Brunner, said the state office concurred with the board's plan to count all the absentee ballots by hand.
Kidder said the problem Summit County had is ''very uncommon'' among counties with optical scan.
''The good news is -- the votes are still there,'' he said.
Brunner thinks optical scan is preferable to the electronic voting machines used in other counties because of the paper ballots, which can be rechecked if problems occur, as in Summit County this week.
Medina, Stark and Portage are among the 53 Ohio counties with electronic or touch-screen voting.
Summit County board employees began the hand count Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, only six ballots with the oval misalignment had been discovered.
Employees are counting the ballots and comparing the results with the tallies in each precinct.
Board employees also will investigate the cause of the printer error to determine how to avoid a repeat. The Nov. 2 general election will have a much higher turnout than the primary, with major contested congressional and statewide races and state and local ballot issues.
''If it's a matter of changing procedures, we will do that,'' Koehler said. ''If it's a matter of changing software, we will do that. We'll make the necessary corrections.''
