CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is eager to assure voters their ballots are secure and results in the upcoming election will be accurate.
The public and reporters were invited on Friday morning to the board’s Elections Ballot Tabulation Center, where officials conducted a test of the equipment and a demonstration of the accuracy of the system.
Anthony Perlatti, director of the Board of Elections in Cuyahoga County, said he wants to be as transparent as possible with the election process, especially as early voting starts Tuesday.
“In Cuyahoga County, we’ve always been under a microscope, because we are the largest voting jurisdiction in the state of Ohio. We are transparent. We open up our doors. We always have,” he said.
Election officials have made more efforts in recent years to assure voters that their votes are secure as former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made baseless claims that the 2020 election was “rigged.”
Trump argued there was widespread fraud in 2020, but more than 60 courts rejected those arguments. The results were affirmed by officials across the country, including many Republicans and his own Justice and Homeland Security departments. Trump still disputes that he lost.
“It’s always a lot of pressure. Your tolerance for error is zero. You have to be 100% spot on all the time,” Perlatti said. “The biggest challenge is the misinformation. People discrediting all the good work of good people at the board of elections.”
Turnout in the 2023 election was unusually high for an odd-year election — 46% in Cuyahoga County — because of statewide votes on abortion access and recreational marijuana. But a presidential election still will far surpass that, with officials estimating turnout at about 70% in the county.
Perlatti said the Board has ordered over 500,000 ballot sheets and anticipates around 365,000 people voting at the polls on Election Day. Starting Tuesday, Ohioans can cast absentee ballots or vote early in person as well.
The Board of Elections always tests the equipment before voting begins, Perlatti said. On Friday, three employees demonstrated how the board’s Clear Ballot scanners work and gave a behind-the-scenes look of how it ensures that every vote, including vote-by-mail and provisional ballots, is counted.
The board’s goal is to encourage voter participation and ensure that the process is simple and accessible for everyone, Perlatti said.
He said a backup system is always in place and paper ballots are available in case of any equipment failures or disruptions on Election Day.
Once votes are cast, Perlatti explained the intense security protocol to make sure ballots are not tampered with in-person or online– the technology used does not have access to the internet.
“And we make sure in this department that we hire an equal number of registered Republicans and Democrats to be able to execute all the duties that we need to,” Perlatti said.
Voter registration closes on Monday with early voting starting Tuesday morning. (To check your voter registration, visit boe.cuyahogacounty.gov/voters.)
