As part of its effort to get public feedback on the remaining voting systems under consideration, the Franklin County Board of Elections has announced that it has produced two video demonstrations which show voters how to cast their ballot on each voting system.

A statement by the spokesperson, Aaron Seller said that, “Both videos are linked on our website for visitors to view and the website gives voters an opportunity to provide feedback.” (To view the videos go to our website http://vote.franklincountyohio.gov/voters.)

Also the Director,  Ed Leonard stated, “Before we finalize the selection of a new voting system, we at the Board of Elections believes it’s critically important to get feedback from the public who will be using these new machines.”

The process of vetting the next generation of voting equipment began in May 2017. The process started with the evaluation of all five voting equipment vendors who were certified by election agencies at the state and federal level. Those five vendors were pared down to the two finalists.

The finalists are Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S) based in Omaha, Nebraska and Hart InterCivic based in Austin, Texas.

Last month, the Board of Elections ran the vendors and voting machines through a series of election style tests to simulate an actual election. During those visits, the BOE invited the public to attend open demonstrations of the equipment as well as offer feedback. The Board of Elections produced these video demonstrations of each system so voters that did not attend the public forum had a chance to see the voting equipment and offer feedback.