On Election Day two years ago, wind gusts knocked out power for at least part of the day in four Northeast Ohio counties. What happens if there are more power outages on Election Day this year when voter turnout is expected to be higher than usual?
In 2018, counties were able to move voters to areas within polling places where there was electricity and some had generators on hand. Paper ballots were used as a backup. But this year, with COVID voting in place, the protocols could be different.
Maggie Sheehan with Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office said there isn’t one statewide plan for power outages. In an email, she said it was up to the 88 county boards of elections to come up with their own plans for how they’d handle an electrical outage on Election Day.
