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Actual Vote in Ohio

Poll tapes posted outside, in public

Information current as of June 2026

This page explains how to use the Actual Vote app in Ohio for the next election. New to Actual Vote? Start here to learn what it is and why it matters.

Ohio is one of the best states in the country for Actual Vote. Because a certified poll tape goes up on the outside of every polling place when polls close, you can drive from site to site on election night and record several — turning one evening into a stack of poll tapes we can convert into election transparency. You can also become a poll worker or observer, make an appointment at your county board of elections, or file a public-records request — all described below.

Your participation is powerful: you become part of a nationwide team whose recordings get compared, tape-by-tape, against the officially reported results. That matters because vote reporting is vulnerable to error and fraud — and an independent record kept outside the government’s chain of custodyThe documented sequence of who holds election records and when — the path results travel from the precinct to the official tally. is exactly what catches a reporting-layer mistake.

We haven’t published an Actual Vote analysis from Ohio yet — but see what a team achieved in the 2024 North Carolina primary to picture what’s possible here. And the process is legal and next-to-impossible to abuse for partisan gain: everything on a poll tape is already public, and the comparison only checks whether totals were reported faithfully.

Get the app How Actual Vote works See an example analysis

This information was compiled using AI-assisted internet research along with some calls to election offices and word-of-mouth tips. It reflects America Counts’s best knowledge of how to access poll tapes in Ohio as of June 2026, but it cannot be guaranteed 100% accurate. The best way to be sure about accessing poll tapes in your area is to call your local elections office and ask — see below for ready-to-use scripts.

If your experience or knowledge of poll-tape procedure in Ohio is different from what we show here, please contact us and let us know — we update these pages as we learn more.

Your ways to participate in Ohio

In order of power — how early in the chain of custody the evidence is, how many tapes one person can capture, and how easy it is.

  1. 1

    Record posted poll tapes at polling places after closing timeMost powerful

    Ohio posts a certified results tape on the front of each polling place at close. Because it’s outside and stays up, you can drive a circuit and record many polling places in a single night with the Actual Vote app. You could also drive to the location you voted at, video-record the poll tapes there, then drive home and call it a night. Whatever you do, your videos become high-quality evidence about vote reporting that can be collected with the app, since you’re recording the tapes soon after they’re printed.

    Phone script — confirm your election-night plan with your county
    Hi, my name is [name]. I’m a user of Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — volunteers record the poll tapes posted on election night and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check. I want to plan correctly for [county], so could I ask one quick question?

    On election night, after the polls close, are the certified precinct results tapes posted on the front of the polling place, where the public can see them? And is there anything I should know about photographing or filming the posted tape?

    If they’re unsure it’s posted outside: it’s a statewide duty — Ohio R.C. § 3505.30 requires one certified copy of the summary statement to be "posted on the front of the polling place." You can mention that and ask them to confirm. If what they say differs from this page, tell us and we’ll verify and fix it.

    See a detailed example of how to make a plan to visit polling places on election night based in Broward County, Florida.

  2. 2

    Become a poll worker or observer and record from inside

    Poll workers and appointed observers are inside at the close and can watch the tape print. It takes signing up or getting a credential in advance, but it puts you right at the source.

    See more details about Actual Vote for poll workers or observers.

    Sign up to be a poll worker →

  3. 3

    Visit or book an appointment at your county board of elections

    County boards can often provide many precincts’ tapes at once — election-day, early, and absentee — on your schedule. A great way to cover a whole county.

    Email/phone script — book an appointment at your Ohio county board
    To: [County] County Board of Elections
    Re: Appointment to view and record precinct results tapes

    Hello, and thank you for your work. My name is [name]. My friends and I use Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — we video-record poll tapes and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check.

    We’d like to request an appointment to view and video-record the certified precinct summary statements (results tapes) for the [date] election — election-day, early, and absentee — for [all precincts / the following precincts: ____]. [Preferred date and window] would work, but we’re flexible and happy to follow any rules your office sets.

    These tapes are public records under R.C. § 3505.30 and R.C. § 149.43, and everything on them is already public, so all we’d need is the tapes and a place to work. Thank you for considering it. — [name], [contact]

    Boards are busiest right before certification — offering a flexible window (and to start with a few precincts) makes a yes easier.

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

  4. 4

    File a public-records request for poll-tape images

    Poll tapes are public records under Ohio law. You can request digital copies by precinct and voting method — convenient, though it captures the tapes later in the chain of custody.

    Public-records request — Ohio poll-tape images (copy & send)
    To: [County] County Board of Elections
    Re: Public-records request — precinct summary statements (poll tapes)

    Hello, and thank you for your work. Under the Ohio Public Records Act, R.C. § 149.43, I am requesting copies of the following records from the [date] election:

    • Digital images or scans of the certified precinct summary statements (the results tapes printed by the ballot scanners at the close of polls) for [all precincts / the following precincts: ____], including any separate write-in results tapes;
    • If readily available, the same for early-voting and absentee/central-count tabulators.

    I’m happy to receive these electronically (PDF or image files) to keep the burden low, and to discuss narrowing or batching the request. These tapes are public records — every figure on them is already public — and I’m requesting them for Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization that compares posted vote totals to officially reported results as an independent double-check (see an example analysis).

    Please let me know the format, any copying fee, and the expected timeline. Thank you very much. — [name], [contact]

    Records requests capture tapes later in the chain of custody than recording the posted tape on election night, but they’re still powerful — and often the most practical way to cover a whole county.

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

Not available in Ohio

  • Observe a vote-by-mail central count

    Doesn’t apply in Ohio — Ohioans vote in person at polling places, so there’s no statewide mail-ballot count to observe. (Curious how it works where it does? See a vote-by-mail state.)

    See how it works elsewhere →

Quick reference: tape access by role in Ohio

A companion to the options above. Whatever your role when the polls close — poll worker, appointed watcher, or member of the public — here’s who can see and record the results tape in Ohio, and how the state compares nationally.

Publicly posted

Summary posted on the front of the polling place.

Recording: Recording the posted copy is fine.
Key authority: Ohio R.C. 3505.30

See how every state compares →

Past Actual Vote poll tape recordings in Ohio

Here are some Actual Vote poll tape videos from previous elections by users in Ohio. You can make your own in the next election!

America Counts compares the vote totals on each poll tape video to the official results to double-check the accuracy of the vote reporting. We did the comparison analysis with these and other videos from these elections and found all matches. We didn't publish a report at the time, but look for one soon.

Recordings live in the public Actual Vote Video Archive.

How we know this — and how you can check it

We start from Ohio’s own primary sources — the election statutes and the Secretary of State’s official manuals — and read the exact provisions rather than relying on summaries. Ohio requires posting, and goes further than most states: the posted copy must be certified by the precinct election officials, and it must go on the front of the building. R.C. § 3505.30 provides:

"When the results of the ballots have been ascertained, such results shall be embodied in a summary statement to be prepared by the precinct election officials in duplicate… One copy shall be certified by the precinct election officials and posted on the front of the polling place, and one copy, similarly certified, shall be transmitted without delay to the board in a sealed envelope along with the other returns of the election."

In practice the "summary statement" is the totals tape printed by the precinct’s ballot scanner. Even counties that count ballots at central counting stations don’t escape the duty — it moves with them: a certified copy of each precinct’s summary sheet must be posted at the counting station (R.C. § 3506.12(B)). Everything else — ballots, pollbook, tally sheet — is sealed and delivered to the county board on election night (R.C. § 3505.31); the posted summary statement is the one record the law leaves behind for the public.

We then check how the rule is carried out, county by county, in the boards’ own poll-worker manuals: Cuyahoga County tapes one signed copy of each scanner’s Totals Report "at the exterior entrance … in public view," Hamilton County tapes the signed Print Tally to the exterior door, Franklin County posts the signed Voting Results Report Tape, and Delaware County posts signed summary and write-in tapes in a window facing out. The Secretary of State’s Election Official Manual (Directive 2026-04, Feb. 2026) restates the posting step in every equipment configuration, and the closing/observer rules (§ 3505.26, § 3506.13) confirm you may watch the close.

Why we’re confident this is current: the posting sentence is word-for-word identical in the statute effective April 30, 2024 (House Bill 101) and its prior 2014 version — the 2024 amendment touched only the reporting plumbing — and nothing in the 2025–26 General Assembly amends it. You can run the same check: read R.C. § 3505.30, then your county board’s poll-worker manual, then call the board to confirm. Found something different? Help us verify it.

Find your county's election website

County sites carry polling locations and local contact information. Links rot — if one 404s, search "[your county], Ohio election website".

Ready to help?

Join the nationwide team independently double-checking how votes are reported — starting in Ohio.

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