When Ohio’s local election officials have a question about how to handle a ballot issue or process a voter file, they no longer have to dig through manuals.
They can ask Eva.
Eva — short for Elections Virtual Assistant — is Ohio’s first artificial intelligence election administration aide.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced on Thursday that the new tool is now available around the clock to all 88 county boards of elections, offering quick answers pulled directly from the state’s official rulebook.
“She’s definitely a data nerd and a bit on the wonky side, but I’m not sure I’ve met someone who can answer a common question about election administration as quickly and effectively as Eva,” LaRose said in a statement.
Eva works a bit like ChatGPT or Gemini, but she’s only trained on two documents — the Ohio Election Official Manual and the annual elections calendar.
The idea is to give officials instant, accurate summaries without risking that the AI wanders off into the wider internet.
“This is a game-changer for our election officials,” LaRose said. “For decades, they’ve had to manually search a 524-page rulebook. Eva can provide those answers immediately with a simple search prompt.”
The system is still a beta project, meaning counties are encouraged to double-check anything that strays into legal territory. Boards of elections should also continue consulting their county prosecutors when seeking legal advice….