Two days into their examination, testers from the state, the county and the voting machine maker Premier have come up with no solutions as to why 39 memory cards were blank and servers repeatedly crashed during the November 6 election.. But elections board director Jane Platten said the problems are all too familiar.
Platten: "We have not yet gotten to the memory card testing at this point but the actual uploading process has definitely produced the same issues that we experienced during the election uploads."
Cuyahoga is one of 57 Ohio counties that uses electronic touch-screen voting machines. The remaining 31 counties use optical scan systems, machines which read paper ballots.
A report on the viability of all voting machines used in Ohio is scheduled to be released Friday (Dec. 14) by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, along with her recommendations. But Brunner already has urged Cuyahoga to change to an optical scan system -- a $10 to 20 million-dollar expense. County elections remain under state oversight, but the board is free to decide on its own which system it will use.
Platten said the board will consider the results of the state AND the local study before deciding how to go forward. A briefing on the results of the tests is scheduled when the board meets Monday (Dec. 17) at 9 a.m.
Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3