I'm seeing people of good faith express the concern that, in this year's election, some voters got mail-in ballots and ended up voting more than once because the process wasn’t closely monitored.

Ohio roster judge here to address your concerns! 1/

The roster judge is the person who asks for your ID and checks you in when you show up to vote. You probably saw him or her find your name in a book, or look you up on an iPad, and match your signature to the one on file. 2/

What you probably didn't see was that those books and iPads also contained information about whether you requested an absentee ballot. If you even *requested* an absentee ballot, it got flagged when you checked in. 3/

At that point, you'd be sent to cast a provisional ballot. That ballot would be counted if, and only if, you hadn't already sent in a mail-in ballot. https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/provisional-voting/ 4/

Tons of people—nearly half, in my precinct—had already voted by mail before the polls even opened on election day. Out of the 300 people I checked in, there were, IIRC, two who had already voted. They came in to make sure their vote got counted. 5/

I explained how the system worked, and they happily walked over to cast a provisional ballot, knowing that their vote would be counted once, and only once. 6/

It wouldn't surprise me if some of the people who did this mentioned it to friends, and some of those failed to mention the "provisional ballot" part of the story. So I can see how people might think that others voted twice. 7/

But, folks, the people who run elections have been doing this for a long time, and they take their jobs very seriously. They set up plenty of safeguards against voting twice, and those safeguards work. 8/

Is it possible that my information about who'd requested an absentee ballot wasn't up-to-date, and someone slipped through the cracks? Excellent question! And the answer, this year, is pretty interesting. 9/

We were all set up to use electronic poll books (iPads). Then we found out, with <10 minutes to opening, that so many people had voted early that the iPad updates had failed. We couldn't be sure they were up to date. 10/ https://www.wcbe.org/post/electronic-snafu-forces-franklin-county-polling-places-back-paper-poll-books

So we pivoted and moved to paper. Our printouts were current. More cumbersome than iPads, to be sure, but they had the information we needed to check people in and direct those who'd requested mail-in ballots to the provisional ballot table. 11/

If you're worried about the integrity of the system, I'd urge you to volunteer to be a part of it. What you'll see, beyond a very thorough and professional organization, is people who are genuinely committed to democracy. It's a great way to spend election day. fin/