Ohio's Franklin County Pivots To Paper After Early Computer Problems

KEY POINTS

Ohio's Franklin County shifted to a paper backup after its digital check-in system failed to properly load the full list of registered voters
The ballots themselves were not affected, and early votes will still be recorded

Early morning voters in Ohio saw one county revert to old-school voting methods. The state's most populous county had to switch to paper pollbooks after its digital voter check-in systems failed.

Franklin County election officials discovered Tuesday morning that their computers would not load the full list of registered voters, prompting them to move to a backup method.

This morning we learned that the Franklin County Board of Elections was not able to upload all early in-person voting data into their electronic check-in system. Because of this, they are shifting to paper pollbooks to check-in voters today. 1/3
— Ohio Secretary of State Comms Team (@SecLaRoseComms) November 3, 2020

It's important to note that this does NOT impact voting machines in any way, and only modifies how voters are checked in. 3/3
— Ohio Secretary of State Comms Team (@SecLaRoseComms) November 3, 2020

In a statement posted to Twitter, which has since gone viral, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose's communication team revealed ballots were not affected by the hiccup, only check-in machines. Early votes were also fine and have been recorded properly.

Franklin County quickly trended on Twitter after the tech issue was confirmed with a majority of commenters criticizing the county for the error. Some asked why the problem wasn’t caught in testing.

does it slowdown the whole process though? If yes, then of course it is going to cause long lines which in turn discourages people to vote. Did you even think of testing these systems prior to this morning. It's not like you didn't have time.
— VoteBlue2022🏳️‍🌈 (@historyjudges) November 3, 2020

Ohio is a battleground state vital to President Donald Trump's reelection chances. Once a Republican stronghold, the state is now seen as vulnerable for the right due to Trump's divisive rhetoric and a devastating COVID-19 surge that engulfed the state.

Both Trump and Joe Biden have made frequent appearances there on the campaign trail, and Michael Bloomberg even funded a last-minute ad blitz in favor of the Democratic candidate. The latest polls out of Ohio show Biden with a narrow lead of 4%.

While some Twitter commenters appear suspicious about Franklin County's move to paper check-ins, others said they didn't notice a slowdown when it came to in-person voting.

Butler county has always used a paper check in. It's like a yearbook with everyone's name and address in it. They just check you off and hand you a ballot.
— GenXEyeRoll (@hkramb) November 3, 2020