Christopher Nance

Students and Athens residents will be able to share their concerns about a study that found “serious vulnerabilities” in Ohio’s voting systems at Baker University Center today, said an Ohio Secretary of State representative.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Nance and a principal investigator in the study, Pennsylvania State University Associate Professor Patrick McDaniel, are hosting forums across the state to talk about possible changes to Ohio’s voting systems, said Patrick Gallaway, the director of communications at Secretary of State’s Office.

Project EVEREST, which stands for Evaluation and Validation of Election Related Equipment, Standards and Testing, was completed in December and discovered problems with the two main types of voting machines used in Ohio.

The optical ballot scanners used by Athens County and 34 other counties in Ohio are vulnerable because memory cards in the machines can overwrite votes accidentally when the cards fill up.

The Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen systems used in 63 of Ohio’s 88 counties can be manipulated to change votes with unsophisticated methods, such as using magnets or paper clips, Gallaway said.

Solutions to these vulnerabilities will involve changes to both the elections system and the elections equipment, according to the EVEREST report.

Nance and McDaniel will offer more information on the problems with both voting systems and possible solutions at today’s discussion from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Baker Center room 242.— Rebecca Black