Brunner looking at plan to end voting machine ‘sleepovers’

COLUMBUS(AP) — Ohio’s elections chief is reconsidering a plan to prohibit poll workers from taking voting machines home for safekeeping in the days before the November presidential election.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced plans in February to scrap the practice known as “sleepovers” because of security concerns but is now facing opposition from county elections officials who say the custom makes it easier to transport machines polling sites.

“She has listened to the concerns of election officials and ultimately wants to do what is best for their process but also make sure that all safety precautions are considered,” Brunner spokesman Patrick Gallaway said Wednesday.

Brunner has frequently referred to a Licking County poll worker who took a machine home for safekeeping and improperly voted on it at home fearing there wouldn’t be enough time on Election Day.

In defense of the practice, election officials say safeguards prevent such a machine from being used at the polls because it would not have the required vote tally of “zero” before voting began.

Sleepovers are prevalent in Ohio counties that use touch-screen voting machines and are sometimes used in counties with machines that scan paper ballots. The practice enables poll workers to pick up voting machines and other equipment such as memory cards in the days before the election, keep them at home and then take them to polling locations before Election Day.

Without sleepovers, county boards would likely have to hire a company to pick up machines and drop them off at different locations, said Keith Cunningham, director of the Allen County Board of Elections and past president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials. That would cost several thousand dollars, and some counties can’t afford it.