ALLEN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - The Allen County Board of Elections is conducting its post-election audit of the May primary as required by the Ohio Secretary of State, with Frank LaRose actually on hand today to observe the audit.
The process takes 5% of the ballots from three randomly selected races to be physically examined and hand counted. Secretary LaRose requires all election boards to perform an audit after every election. He says it's important that the election results are verified through the audit.
"We don't just have electronic voting; we also don't just have paper voting; we have both in parallel, and then the two have to match up. That's the kind of redundancy, the kind of backup that we have, and again, just another reason why Ohioans can be confident in their elections," explained Frank LaRose, Ohio Secretary of State.
Your Hometown Stations also asked LaRose about the situation of the democratic nominating convention starting August 19th, which is past the deadline to get President Biden on the Ohio general election ballot. He says that the law states the party must certify their nominee 90 days prior to the general election, which is August 7th. LaRose says he contacted both national and state officials about the deadline conflict to hopefully get a resolution to the problem.
"The state legislature has done this in the past. They will pass a temporary law change that just extends the deadline. It's up to them, though, and you've got to get a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate and get it on the governor's desk. And you really have to do it by a certain date in May; I forget which date because it would have to have 90 days to take effect under Ohio's law without an emergency clause," explained LaRose.
LaRose recognized retiring elections board director Kathy Meyer and board member Gary Frueh for their years of service and encouraged them to stay active as poll workers. It was also Secretary LaRose's 45th birthday, and the Allen County Board of Elections made sure to celebrate with cake.
