PICKAWAY COUNTY, Ohio — The election for Sheriff in Pickaway County is further in jeopardy after the Board of Elections did a “double-face” on Saturday.
Rumors of tampering with voter machines spread throughout the county and on social media Tuesday by locals, who said they saw people tampering with voting machines throughout the day. The Sheriff was even accused of being “seen” by locals at polling locations, raising eyebrows; the Guardian could not independently confirm the claim. That prompted the board to issue a statement saying what people actually saw was “machine maintenance” by trained poll workers.
Sheriff’s Race
There were a lot of contested primary races in Pickaway County, but the most hotly one is the local Sheriff’s race. Incumbent Matthew Hafey was challenged by Dale Thomas, who is a former D.A.R.E. deputy and current K-9 handler for Ross County. The unofficial tally after voting tabulation on Tuesday night was that Hafey had won by 137 votes, with 139 votes outstanding from mail in and provisional ballots. With such a small lead, many Thomas supporters had hope that the race could swing in the direction of the deputy, however, elections officials said it was highly unlikely that 99% of the outstanding ballots were all in favor of one candidate or another.
Saturday’s chaos
On Saturday, the board issued a statement saying that what they said on Wednesday about machine irregularities was not entirely accurate.
In a statement released on Saturday afternoon, the board said they have discovered a discrepancy in the unofficial election results, wherein more mail absentee votes were counted than were actually cast for all candidates. This discrepancy will affect all contests. The board is currently balancing and reconciling election day votes, processing valid absentee mail ballots, and reviewing provisional ballots. The discrepancy occurred when a USB drive containing test data was inadvertently inserted into the tabulation computer, causing the tabulation program to import the test data before the drive was cleared, affecting subsequent results.
“Since this has come to our attention, we reviewed the data and processes and have determined what happened and how. After the absentee results were generated at 7:32 pm, a USB drive was inserted into the tabulation computer so it could be cleared for use later in the evening,” a statement from the board reads. “Unfortunately, this USB drive contained ‘test data’ used during the pre-election logic and accuracy testing process which the tabulation program imported before the drive was cleared. This change is reflected in the next results generated at 7:58 pm.”
According to the final report, there were a total of 4,634 absentee votes counted; how many of those, if any were from the test data was not disclosed. The board said they are unable to provide specific details until the official certification but they are “committed to ensuring such incidents do not recur and welcomes questions or concerns from the community.”
The official results will be released on Friday, March 29 at 3 p.m.
