Ohio Election Security Safeguards

Every state has laws and rules that protect the integrity of the election process before, during, and after voting takes place. Here are some of Ohio’s key safeguards.

Ohio has rigorous checks in place to maintain clean voter rolls and ensure that voting systems are secure and accurate. 

• As an initial protection against ineligible registrations, federal law requires that registrants provide their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when registering to vote for the first time.
• Federal law requires election officials to remove anyone from the voter rolls who has died, moved, or otherwise become ineligible. In Ohio, the secretary of state’s office is required to annually audit each county’s list of registered voters. Officials must cancel a voter registration following a death or change-of-address notice. Finally, officials must cancel voter registrations of voters who do not respond to an address confirmation notice, update their registration, or vote in a period of four consecutive years that includes two general federal elections.
• Ohio requires all voting systems to be tested by independent labs to check that they meet security standards.
• State law requires bipartisan teams of election officials to conduct logic and accuracy tests on all voting systems before use. Logic and accuracy tests verify that voting systems are programmed to interpret voter markings and report vote totals accurately, before any voter casts a ballot.

Ohio has layers of safeguards to protect voting processes and ensure that only eligible voters can cast ballots.

• There is a paper record of every vote cast. Most voters hand-mark paper ballots or use devices that mark paper ballots, whether voting in person or by mail. Polling places also offer accessible voting systems with verifiable paper records for voters with disabilities.
• Ohio law requires that no more than half of the election officials at each precinct can be members of the same party. Precinct election officials are responsible for receiving the ballots and supplies, opening and closing the polls, and overseeing voting. 
• If a mail ballot has missing or mismatched identification information, officials must notify the voter. To ensure their ballot is counted, voters must “cure” their ballot no later than the fourth day after the election.
• All mail ballot envelopes must contain the voter’s signature. Under Ohio state law, election officials must compare the signature to the one on the voter’s registration form.
• Voters can track their mail ballot through their county board of elections website. 

Ohio’s safeguards do not end on election night. In the weeks after polls close, election officials go through a series of checks to confirm that vote totals are complete and accurate before certifying final results.

• After ballots are initially counted, election officials review and reconcile a variety of records, including polling place records that show the number of voters who checked in and number of ballots issued. 
• Ohio state law requires election officials to conduct an audit of at least three contests in every election. The audit must be open to public observation.