LISBON — The Columbiana County Board of Elections will be back to using the electronic poll pads to check voter signatures against IDs during the Nov. 4 general election.

County Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco reported during the election board meeting on Tuesday that during the recent elections conference in Columbus, which board members also attended, they learned the reason why they couldn’t use the electronic poll pads for the May 2025 primary.

She said state officials explained that it was due to some possible security breach in another county, Perry County, saying it sounded to her like they were saying it could have been a hacker, an electrical short in the poll pads or a ghost.

Back in the spring, the Ohio Secretary of State sent out a directive for at least 39 counties to use paper poll books instead of the electronic poll pads on Election Day, with no explanation for why. The county had been using the electronic poll pads since 2016 to check signatures of voters when they present their identification. All 39 of the counties used KNOWINK for their electronic poll books.

Ohio Secretary of State Liaison Fiona Ruminski, who attends the Columbiana County Board of Elections board meetings, told the board that part of the problem in the other county was that the internet browser should have removed from the iPads being used for electronic poll pads, but they weren’t. She also said the poll pads, which weren’t in cases, were all stacked together, breaking the electronic field on the devices. Where they were stored, a worker could hear music and it was coming from one of the iPads.

Ruminski said there was “no nefarious action, just human error,” noting there’s a remediation plan in place.

Fusco said the iPads are not pieces of voting equipment, they’re strictly to check a voter’s signature against their identification. She said Columbiana County’s machines are not connected to the internet and there’s no internet browser on the iPads so they can’t be connected to the internet.

“All of our iPads are in cases and all have their own electrical outlet,” she said.

Fusco again explained that the electronic poll pads are just a signature book, that’s it.

Board member Charley Kidder said that was a good move on the part of Columbiana County to make sure each electronic poll pad has its own electrical outlet for charging. He said that’s not luck, but good preparation.

In other business, the board certified the post-election audit results which the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office required even though the county had already done a countywide automatic recount for the Municipal Court judge race between Danielle Menning and Judge Kelly Linger for the Republican nomination.

With 11,331 ballots cast for the May election, election personnel had to count 5% of that by hand, which came out to 757 ballots. The personnel used the same four precincts that had been used for the judge race recount, Butler Township South, Elkrun Township, Liverpool Township West and Salem Township Franklin Square. This time they had to count by hand the judge race again, the countywide sales tax issue and the State Issue 2 issue.

“Columbiana County is 100 percent accurate,” Fusco said.

All the results were the same, with both the state issue and the sales tax passing and Menning winning the Republican nomination for the Jan. 1 judge term.

The board also approved $76,153 for June expenses, which Fusco said should conclude election expenses from the May primary.

She reminded board members that the filing deadline for the Nov. 4 election is 4 p.m. Aug. 6, so they’ll have to schedule a meeting sometime after that, with the date to be announced.