FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ohio — Secretary of State Frank LaRose has put the Franklin County Board of Elections under an administrative oversight after three voters were able to vote twice during the Nov. 2 general election.
A voter told LaRose's office that they were able to vote again, despite knowing they had already voted during the early voting period.
One voter was informed by a poll worker that the e-poll book did not list the person as having voted during the early voting period.
E-poll books are used to check in voters and determine if they had already cast a ballot or requested an absentee ballot.
The experience left the voter feeling concerned that their ballot was not properly counted during the early voting period so they ended up voting a second time.
LaRose's office said while ballots do have a paper trail, ballots are anonymous and it is not possible to determine which ballot belonged to the voter. Due to this, the voter's ballot was counted twice in the unofficial results.
In 2020, Franklin County had an issue with its E-poll system and was forced to use its paper backup. The Secretary of State's office instructed the county to remedy the issue.
RELATED: Issue downloading voter files forces Franklin County to check voters in with paper poll books
After investigating, LaRose's office determined that some of the e-poll books did not automatically update the morning of Nov. 2. When that happens, a poll worker is supposed to manually update the poll book.
This is what allowed the voter to not have a record of voting during the Early Voting period, thus allowing them to vote twice.
LaRose's office said that the board did not have a process in place to determine if all e-poll books were properly updated with the final voter history data, or if they did have a process, they failed to follow it properly.
As a part of the new oversight, the Franklin County Board of Elections is now required to report weekly to the Secretary of State's office.
An investigation from the board showed three people in total were allowed to vote twice due to this issue. It did not impact the outcome of any election, LaRose said.