The Lucas County Board of Elections stayed up all night, through 9 a.m. today, to finish tabulating the May 6 election results — pushing through multiple problems that included missing data cards, an accidental deletion of a computer file containing votes, and tension between two board members that prompted a sheriff’s deputy to intervene. Trouble with the election, which was being tabulated at the board’s early vote center, became apparent at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. At that point, less than 73 percent of the results were posted online and had not been updated for about an hour. Board member Jon Stainbrook told The Blade just before midnight that six data cards were missing, which was holding up the election count. The board didn’t finalize the primary election count until 9:28 a.m., after completing all-night count of the votes. Final election turnout was 10.15 percent, with about 31,695 of Lucas County’s 312,412 registered voters casting ballots. The turnout in Ohio’s last gubernatorial primary, in 2010, was about 17 percent in Lucas County. The election was wrought with problems, the most grievous being the missing cards.
Elections Director Gina Kaczala was pressed by several reporters about the missing six cards. She initially said there were no missing cards but later revised her statement, saying five cards were unaccounted for, but that they did not have votes on them.
… She eventually said the missing cards were never used in voting machines for the election, but since they had been activated in testing, the election boards computer system showed them as missing.
Chad Rowley, an employee of Dominion Voting Systems — the company operates the touch screen voting machines — confirmed just after midnight that five cards were in fact missing.
Full Article: Lucas County elections board plagued by problems – Toledo Blade.