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Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to Update Voting Booths

The county has elected to begin use of electronic poll books instead of the large, paper rosters.

(TNS) -- CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County plans to begin checking in voters with electronic poll books in November, using equipment from Tenex Software Solutions.

Board of Elections director Pat McDonald and his staff recommended that company to the board at its meeting on Tuesday.

The board is expected to vote on purchasing 1,450 electronic poll books at a cost of $1.7 million at the Feb. 8 meeting. The state is footing the cost.

Electronic poll books will replace the large, paper rosters of registered voters at each voting location. The county plans to phase in the software during primary and special elections before launching them countywide in November.

The county has spent the last year and a half researching vendors, including finalists Tenex and KNOWiNK.

Last summer the board decided to delay the choice to allow for further testing and to see how the companies performed in the November presidential election in Ohio counties where they had contracts. KNOWiNK was in 18 counties and Tenex in three counties.

Electronic poll books from the vendors were placed in 40 Cuyahoga County locations containing a total of 146 precincts in last November's election. Those precincts had the highest number of provisional ballots cast in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, officials said.

The e-poll books were used in a limited capacity to look up where voters live and where they should vote. Voters did not sign in on the poll books, nor were they issued ballots based on electronic poll book information.

Voters that came to the incorrect polling location were provided with a print out of step by step driving directions to their current polling locations which could also be sent via email or text message, officials said.

According to a report submitted to the board on Tuesday, Tenex allows poll workers to scan the bar code on the stub of the paper ballot, the company provides an easier and more accurate method of updating supplemental absentee voters and staff preferred Tenex's training and ease of setup.

See the report below or click here if on a mobile device.

Equipment from Tenex had problems in 2015 in Hamilton County, where voters were wrongly told they weren't registered. Problems included lack of training and equipment issues, according to a report sent to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.

The Tenex problems were resolved and the March 2016 primary election went smoothly, Tenex president and CEO Ravi Kallem said in April.

"The use of the Tenex EPBs attributed to a 30-percent reduction in the number of provisional ballots issued in presidential elections. We could not have been happier with the way the EPBs performed as well as with the service and support by Tenex," says a statement from Sherry Poland, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, on the Tenex website.

An e-poll book typically provides one or more of the following functions:

  • Allows poll workers to look up voters from the entire county or state. This can reduce time spent checking in voters.
  • Allows poll workers to easily redirect voters who are in the wrong location to the correct polling places.
  • Scans a driver's license to pull up a voter's information, avoiding data entry errors.
  • Notifies poll workers if a voter already voted absentee or during the early voting period.
  • Allows voters to sign in electronically.
  • Produces turnout numbers and lists of who voted.
  • Uses a photo to verify a voter's identity.
©2017 Advance Ohio Media, Cleveland Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.