WILMINGTON — Some candidates and issues fared better than others during Tuesday’s election, but the overall process of electing public officials went smoothly throughout Clinton County, according to Board of Elections Director Shane Breckel.
“Turnout was light overall but steady in the precincts in the Clinton-Massie and Blanchester Local School Districts where there was a lot of interest in races and/or questions and issues,” said Breckel. “We had anticipated this and were prepared.”
He said there were no local security issues, and that his staff as well as government at all levels put a lot of effort into assuring all goes well and no data or information is compromised.
“We will continue to review and improve our security measures and procedures heading into next year’s state and federal elections,” Breckel said. “This includes both the physical and cyber securities of our voter registration and election systems. While Clinton County has had no attacks or threats to date, we have seen them in one form or another in other states both last year and this year and have been advised by the FBI, Homeland Security and the Ohio Secretary of State’s office that we must be prepared.”
Breckel said that, just last week, Clinton County and several other counties received emails appearing to be from a state agency with a link to download a required form.
“Because of all that has happened in the last year, we do not click on email links anymore from senders we don’t know because these phishing scams are the easiest way for the attackers to gain access to our files and voter registration system,” he said. “Our election system, which includes our programming/tabulation workstations and ballot scanners, are never and have never been connected to the Internet, to prevent cyber-attacks. We are confident this will continue to prevent any manipulation and safeguard our election results.”
He said the success of local elections boils down to local citizens.
“I want to thank all of our poll workers for their hard work and dedication,” he added. “We had a very difficult time filling all of our positions this election and had a lot of workers who had to call off at the last minute due to illness and other unforeseen reasons. We really appreciate all they do to make our elections happen. I always say they are the front line of our elections and they do an excellent job serving our voters.”
He also expressed gratitude for his staff, board members and seasonal workers at the Clinton County Board of Elections.
“With the state-mandated early voting hours and the ever-increasing workload of modern elections, they all put in a lot of hours and hard work at the sacrifice of their personal lives to ensure the integrity and seamless operations that make our county’s elections happen,” he said. “I’m so grateful to work with all of them.”
Be a poll worker
If anyone is interested in being a poll worker in future elections, please contact Shane Breckel’s office at the board of elections by phone at 937-382-3537 or by email at [email protected].
