COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — With one week left to cast your vote for this year’s elections, Secretary of State Frank LaRose is ensuring Ohioans their ballot is secure and fair.

LaRose said the electronic tabulation of votes are cross-checked with the paper copy of the ballot each election.

“We’ve had historically a 99.98% accuracy rate between the electronic results and the paper results,” LaRose said.

In addition, LaRose said there’s a quality check as votes come in and it is all done in a bipartisan fashion.

“We have a quality check that happens as those results are coming in,” LaRose said. “A great example would be the total number of votes. If you add up candidate A and candidate B, it should equal the number of voters that checked in and cast a ballot at that polling location.”

He said, even though you vote on an electronic machine, they are checked each election and there’s no chance of your decisions being altered. LaRose also noted a common misconception that polling machines are connected to the internet

“Voting machines are never connected to the internet. They’re not capable of being connected to the internet, they’re not allowed under Ohio law to be connected to the internet,” LaRose said. “It would be a felony to connect a voting machine to the internet.”

If you requested an absentee ballot then show up to vote in person, you will not be able to vote twice right away. You will be turned away or given a provisional ballot that is filed in a separate place from other ballots.

“If you never submitted your absentee ballot, then they can count your provisional,” LaRose said. “But only once they can verify you never submitted your absentee ballot.”

There are more than 8,000,000 registered voters across Ohio and 4,000 polling locations across the state. LaRose said the roll of registered voters in Ohio is extremely accurate, so no one who lives out of state or is not legally allowed to vote will be able to cast a ballot.

You can cast your vote now during early voting, or on election day, Nov. 8. Request an absentee ballot by Wednesday here.