Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says the state鈥檚 voting systems are . But Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters is concerned about voter turnout.
LaRose has been touring each of Ohio鈥檚 88 Boards of Elections. He finished up last week in Akron, touting more than $114 million spent this year to equip almost every county with new voting machines. He estimates another $13-15 million in federal 鈥淗elp America Vote Act鈥� funds is on its way. And he says counties will be completing his 34-point voting security checklist by the end of next month to ensure readiness.
鈥淲e鈥檝e required every board of elections to install an intrusion detector 鈥� it鈥檚 essentially a burglar alarm for your server and IT infrastructure. What it does is, it allows us to know 鈥� whether it鈥檚 4 a.m. on a Saturday or whenever 鈥� if there is malicious activity occurring so we can respond to it.鈥�
Jen Miller, executive director of Ohio鈥檚 League of Women Voters, is encouraged by that, but says the larger issue is increasing voter turnout 鈥� especially with next year鈥檚 primary coming on St. Patrick鈥檚 Day.
鈥淧olling locations will likely have to change. There could be road closures because of parades. So especially for the primaries, we encourage early voting throughout the state.鈥�
LaRose and Miller both say the state is also more secure thanks to the recent creation of the , consisting of IT professionals who can be deployed to combat attacks on government websites.
During LaRose鈥檚 tour of his hometown board of elections 鈥� in Summit County -- he stressed that the actual voting machines are never directly connected to the internet:
In his first year in office, Sec. of State visited all 88 Ohio Boards of Elections. Here he shows voting machine security measures to at his last stop, . More Monday 鈥� WKSU (@WKSU)
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