The Board of Commissioners on July 23passed a resolution declaring the pollbooks, printers, and other voting accessories as “not needed for public use, obsolete, or unfit for use and of no value.” This designation allows the Board of Elections to discard the equipment.
The pollbooks, which resemble tablets or laptops, were used for voter check-ins during elections dating back to 2017. But due to software obsolescence and discontinued vendor support, they’re no longer functional, officials said.
“They can’t be updated anymore. The vendor doesn’t support them anymore, and they’ve been stored on our shelves for probably a year and a half or two years,” Board of Elections Deputy Director Nora McGinnis told commissioners during last week’s meeting
Because the devices are classified as voting equipment under Ohio law, they cannot be repurposed, sold, or donated—even if they resemble common technology, Geauga County Prosecutor James Flaiz’s office told the board.
While commissioners expressed concern about discarding equipment purchased with public dollars, they ultimately agreed with the Board of Elections’ recommendation, citing legal constraints and security risks.
The move comes amid continued public scrutiny over election equipment and security.
In Geauga County, a former resident was prosecuted for voting in both Ohio and Florida during the 2020 election, the Geauga County Maple Leaf reported. That case was one of the few documented instances of recent voter fraud in the region.
Also during the meeting, the board approved the creation of a new “2025 Election Security Grant Fund” to manage a $10,000 grant received from the Ohio Secretary of State’s office. The grant is part of the state’s latest cybersecurity directive for local boards of elections.
“This is just the paperwork needed for us to be able to deposit the $10,000 check into a separate fund to be used for cybersecurity within the department,” McGinnis said. She noted the board had already received the grant, which had been “sitting in our drawer” awaiting the formal creation of the fund.
Geauga County was one of several counties chosen by the state to begin implementing the new directive released by the Secretary of State’s office in May that requires boards of elections to enhance cybersecurity and physical protections for voting infrastructure.
McGinnis said Geauga is “ahead of the game,” having already gone through a “large process” outlined by the Secretary of State’s office.
Among the first planned expenses is replacing two computers used for early voting and absentee ballot printing that cannot be upgraded to Windows 11.
The resolution to create the fund passed unanimously.
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