Ohio Election Officials Warn Against Returning to Hand-Counted Ballots
Cleveland,โ OH – Concerns are rising over a push to abandon โฃelectronic voting machines in Ohio, with election โฃexperts warning a return to hand-counting ballots would be slower, less accurate, and undermine faith โin the state’s election system. The debate comes โขas some politicians โคquestion the reliability of current voting technology.laura Johnston, a content director at cleveland.com, highlighted the fallibility of โhuman counting with a personal example: “I’mโค not an idiot.I took all the hardest math classes, I took calculus and โI still can’t add up Girl Scout cookie โorders correctly every time. So, the idea of hand counting ballots โฃis โขabsurd.”
Historically, hand-counting ballotsโข proved problematic, leading โto the โimplementation of machines to expedite the process โคand improve accuracy.โ Election results often โtook days to finalize under the previous โขsystem,a stark contrast to the speed offered by modern technology.
Accordingโ to a recent discussion on the “Today in Ohio” podcast,the movement toโ revert to hand-counting aligns with a broader effort to cast doubt on โtheโ integrity of U.S.โค elections. โขAs podcast host Chrisโ Quinn noted, โฃ”This is just part of โขthat effortโ Donald Trump has beenโข making for a decade to undermine our faith inโ theโ best election system in theโ world.”
Current election procedures already include safeguards, such as paper backups for hand-counting in close or contested โคraces. Moreover, โvoting machines undergo rigorous โtesting and certification processes. Experts argue that abandoning thes โmachines isn’t โabout enhancing security, but rather about โcreating distrust inโข a system that has consistently demonstratedโ itsโฃ reliability.
The centralโข question, as posed inโ the โคarticle, is why some politicians are actively working to erode public confidence โฃin technologies thatโข have madeโฃ elections more accurate,โ accessible, and efficient.
Listeners can access the full “Todayโข in Ohio” podcast discussion here. Full episodes featuring Chris Quinn, Lisa garvin,โค Leila Atassi, and Lauraโ johnston are available here.
Note: This rewrite maintains all factual details from the original article, including names, quotes, links, and โthe core argument. It has been re-written for clarity and โa โbreaking-newsโ style lead.