Ohio’s pilot program aimed at improving the precision of voter rolls has expanded and is now being implemented statewide. This initiative is geared towards enhancing the accuracy and reliability of Ohio’s voter registration system.
Frank LaRose, the Secretary of State, has launched a voter data integrity program which was initially implemented in six counties and is now being extended to the entire state. The program utilizes digital dashboards that are specific to each county to identify any discrepancies in voter registration.
According to LaRose, the discrepancies in data entry are not necessarily a sign of fraud or other irregularities. Nonetheless, it is crucial to address these issues to fulfill our legal obligation to uphold the precision of the voter registration database statewide.
As reported earlier by The Center Square, Ben Kindel, a spokesperson for LaRose, stated that the dashboard would serve as an additional resource for local officials during their routine list maintenance procedures, which take place on a daily and weekly basis. Prior to the dashboard’s implementation, local boards were responsible for managing their own systems.
According to Kindel, the majority of errors in voter registration occur due to officials mistakenly hitting the wrong key while updating forms or making transcription mistakes while entering data from hand-filled registration forms.
County election boards can now access dashboards that display the number of registration records that have been flagged for potential errors. These errors may include illegal characters in name fields, placeholder birth dates, unreasonably high ages, and improper birth and registration date combinations.
Over the years, the state’s database has often been prone to errors due to the manual entry of handwritten forms.
According to LaRose, a significant number of Ohio’s registration records have been inputted manually into the system from handwritten forms, resulting in the possibility of data entry errors. He expressed his enthusiasm for the innovative tool that will aid every county election office in resolving these issues more efficiently. LaRose also stated that he looks forward to expanding the success of the pilot program as they prepare for the November election.
Election officials are mandated to review and rectify errors that entail prohibited name characters, placeholder birth dates, registration before birth, and registration for individuals below 17 years old with the implementation of the new dashboards.