COLUMBUS, Ohio — In just six months from now, voters will have the chance to cast their ballots for the next president of the United States. Elections officials across Ohio are working to make sure it all goes smoothly and securely.
On Friday in Delaware, elections officials and staff from 16 central Ohio counties and one from the Cincinnati area packed a room at the Delaware County Board of Elections for the secretary of state's "Ready for November" Initiative training.
With 3,000 polling locations and 30,000 volunteers across all 88 counties, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the initiative is about making sure elections officials are ready for the big test -- election day.
"This is our chance to 'what if' the heck out of the November election and then think through, what do we do if 'what if' happens," LaRose said.
He said those 'what ifs' include everything from paper shortages to power outages to an unruly person at a polling location.
For Franklin County Board of Elections Director Antone White, the 'what ifs' swirl around election security.
"We're focused on physical security, obviously, making sure voters are safe when they go to the polls, also cybersecurity," White said.
The trainings focus on issues including election day logistics, communications, integrity protocols and poll worker recruitment and training.
"Our job is to run elections that are so good that people know when they go to bed on election night, whether their favorite candidate won or lost, that it was a trustworthy election," LaRose said.
To pull that off, Warren County Director of Elections Brian Sleeth said he needs poll workers.
"It's always hard to get poll workers to set aside 13, 14 hours of their day to commit to low paying jobs," Sleeth said.
LaRose said voting machines and tabulators cannot be hacked from outside because they are never connected to the internet.
"I think our foreign adversaries have figured out that they can't actually tamper with elections," LaRose said. "So instead, they tamper with voters."
Frankin County's Antone White is keenly aware of that.
"I think the narrative is probably going to be the same as 2020," White said. "There's always going to be misinformation. We always encourage voters to go to the source."
Friday's training was the last of six regional readiness seminars put on by the Secretary of State's Office. Other types of training sessions will be held over the coming months.