$50,000 to County Board of Elections for Security
The Geauga County Board of Elections will spend $50,000 to upgrade voting security, as part of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s statewide grant.
The Geauga County Board of Elections will spend $50,000 to upgrade voting security, as part of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s statewide grant.
At their July 23 meeting, Geauga County Commissioners approved the establishment of an elections security block grant special revenue fund to facilitate the necessary security upgrades.
According to a document on the secretary of state website, LaRose’s office is facilitating the one-time federal grant funding to assist county boards of elections in solving high priority election security issues.
Dorothy Stange, deputy director of the Geauga County Board of Elections, said the funding is necessary because the security upgrades now identified as necessary by the federal government were not part of initial budget planning for boards across the state.
“We’re starting our list of things that we’re going to need, and there’s still things that we don’t know that we’re going to need,” Stange said in a phone interview after the meeting. “There’s still things coming down from the state all the time.”
LaRose’s office specifies significant security upgrades, including stricter security on county computer networks, as well as specifying criminal background checks for all permanent board of elections employees, and vendors or contractors that perform sensitive services for the board of elections.
“Ohio has a strong history of administering fair, accurate and secure elections,” LaRose said. “We have long been a national leader in election security and are confident that this directive will provide the necessary guidance to ensure that continues.”
Stange said every dollar the Geauga board of elections spends must be thoroughly documented to be covered by the grant. All bills for security upgrades must be submitted by June of 2020, and the state expects high-priority security risks to be addressed no later than Jan. 31, 2020.
Geauga County Administrator Gerry Morgan told commissioners Tim Lennon and Jim Dvorak the state has specified the $50,000 must be deposited into its own interest-bearing fund.
Multiple impending retirements in the county’s transit department prompted Lennon to reiterate to Morgan the necessity of managers making succession planning a priority.
The county will advertise a position to replace Transit Director Michael Kasper, who is retiring in September.
Commissioners also approved the appointment of Geauga County Water Resources Department Director Steven Oluic as alternate for Dvorak on the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency Water Quality Management subcommittee for the remainder of 2019.
