How does the voting process work in Ohio?

Problems with punch card ballots in the disputed 2000 presidential election led Congress to ban punch cards.

Elections officials in 88 Ohio counties choose their voting systems. In all, 43 use paper ballots with optical scanners that record the vote, and 45 use electronic touch screen machines with an encrypted computer memory card and a spool of paper that record the vote.

No voting machines or vote tabulation machines are ever connected to the internet. Most counties, including the nine in the Dayton region, have machines purchased in 2006.

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