Election Day morning chaos in the Toledo area is over — at least the mechanical kind.

Ohio’s Secretary of State confirmed Tuesday afternoon that voting machine issues in Lucas and Wood counties had been resolved by mid-day. The office’s official “Verify Ohio” account posted at 2:22 p.m. ET that the county boards of elections were aware of the problems and had resolved them, adding that counties can quickly switch to paper ballots so voting keeps moving.

The update came in response to social media posts about the outages, including posts from the conservative account Libs of TikTok, according to the Columbus Dispatch’s Election Day live blog.

It was a rough start in parts of the Toledo area. Voting machines went down at Shoreland Elementary in Lucas County this morning, forcing poll workers to hand out paper ballots (read our earlier report). Voters in Wood County hit similar hiccups at Toth Elementary. And two Toledo polling places — Beverly and Monac Elementary — were evacuated over bomb threats Tuesday morning (read our earlier report); the all-clear came around 12:15 p.m. and voting resumed.

Despite the disruptions, Ohio is voting in force. A record 1.7 million Ohioans cast ballots before Election Day, smashing the previous 2022 record of 1.5 million. In Hamilton County, 256,937 ballots — 43% of registered voters — were in by early afternoon, putting the county within reach of its 57.5% midterm record from 2018. Stark County was past 38% by noon with election officials reporting “no snags.”

Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET. Anyone in line by then can still vote. A photo ID is required, and Issue 3 — which would enshrine voter ID requirements in the Ohio Constitution — is also on the ballot.

Photo: Ktkvtsh via Wikimedia Commons

Sources: Columbus Dispatch live blog | Cincinnati.com live blog | Canton Repository | Fostoria Free Press