The 81 double votes, while too large a number to dismiss as insignificant, represent an infinitesimally small percentage of the roughly 420,000 votes cast in Hamilton County that would not have changed any race’s outcome.
Even so, election officials stress that even a single case of improper voting is unacceptable, which explains their determination to pursue legal charges if warranted.
“This is a dangerous situation,” said elections board member Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party. Eighty-one people, he noted, “thought it appropriate to go and vote twice” – a situation Triantafilou argued merits an investigation and possible referrals to the county prosecutor’s office.
Tim Burke, who chairs both the elections board and the county Democratic Party, agreed that those cases and some others should be investigated. But before any individual faces possible charges, the elections board needs to examine the explanations behind the double votes, he added.
“I’m not ready to send anybody to the prosecutor yet,” Burke said. In recent elections, officials have found that some elderly voters and others mistakenly showed up at the polls after having already cast an early absentee ballot, he said.