CCVO Looking for a team leader in each Ohio county for the return to hand counted paper ballots

Strategy # 1 County Commissioners Opportunity

Hand-counting ballots are a more secure and less expensive alternative than using voting machines that remain a major threat to secure and fair elections in Ohio since the Secretary of State refuses to have the machines examined by cyber experts to determine their safety. In addition, rural counties with low voter turnout bear an unfair financial burden to use the machines. The County Board of Elections (BOEs) are responsible for the security of the voting machines whereas the County Commissioners (CCs) are responsible for providing the funds to purchase the cost (less government subsidies) and the annual maintenance and licensing of the machines.

Since County Commissioners (CCs) have a fiduciary responsibility to use taxpayer’s money without burdening the county any more than necessary, they need data to prove that the machines cost more than the hand-count alternative. This action plan consists of conducting a cost analysis that compares the counties’ machine cost data to the estimated hand counting cost to build the justification for the CCs to abandon financing the machines and for them to engage the BOEs on adopting the hand-count alternative.

CCVO will help train and equip anyone willing to volunteer to become a county team leader to make the case to their respective CCs to abandon the machines and adopt hand-counting ballots.

CCVO can provide the following:

·         County machine costs versus hand-counting costs.

·          Hands-on training for hand-counting is based on nationally recognized best practices.

·          Excerpts from the CC handbook show options available to the CC to assert more power to push back to the BOE’s resistance to hand count.

·         The National Convention (RNC) promotes the use of paper ballots that are hand- counted. Security is our first concern, not the cost.

·         Option if needed: Use the public budget committee approach outlined in the CC handbook to add two additional citizens to a newly formed “Budget committee”

·         Option if needed: Consider forming a Charter County Government if the conditions exist or if someone within the county is willing to consider it.