Originally published by: Mark Niquette and the Columbus Dispatch
January 12, 2008
As some counties question her plan to overhaul state elections in the wake of a study critical of voting equipment, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner plans to clear the air with election officials from across Ohio next week.
“For many of the board of elections members, I think it’s a chance for them to hear directly from me,” said Brunner, who is scheduled to address the Ohio Association of Election Officials’ annual conference Tuesday in Columbus.
“It’s also an opportunity for them to air some of their concerns, and I’m certainly open and willing to listen to those,” she said.
Brunner commissioned a $1.9 million study this past fall of all voting systems used in the state, and it concluded that the equipment — especially touch-screen devices — is substandard and susceptible to tampering.
She has proposed replacing all touch-screens in 57 of Ohio’s 88 counties with an optical-scan system using paper ballots by the November election. With the March 4 primary looming, she has ordered all counties with touch-screens to provide a paper ballot upon request by voters leery of using the machines.
But some counties object to that order, arguing that they are satisfied with their equipment and concerned about the possible pitfalls of trying to implement such a change so quickly.
For example, the Fulton County commissioners voted this week to deny a request from the county elections board for the $465,000 that officials estimate would be needed to make paper ballots available in the March primary and in November.
“We just put a new system in place, and now we’re going to throw it out the window,” said Brett J. Kolb, director of the Fulton County Board of Elections. The state has spent more than $100 million since 2005 to replace its punch cards and older voting systems.
The Union County Board of Elections deadlocked 2-2 on whether to follow Brunner’s order after the county prosecutor questioned Brunner’s authority, and Franklin County has questioned the minimum number of ballots it must print.
Yesterday, the Franklin County Board of Elections approved printing 80,000 paper ballots. Of those, 50,000 would be for provisional votes and 30,000 for people who ask for a paper ballot on Election Day instead of using a machine.
“We won’t run out of (paper) ballots on Election Day, and you can quote me on that,” said Dennis L. White, Franklin County Deputy Elections’ Director.
Brunner, a former judge, downplays the counties’ challenges, saying the state attorney general’s office has told her she is on firm legal ground and counties by law must comply with her directives.
“All of the pushback is coming from Republicans, and I would hope that this is not a partisan move on their part because I think the voters expect more than that from their election officials,” said Brunner, a Democrat.
But some Democrats and other groups not usually aligned with Republicans, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, also have questioned Brunner’s proposals – especially counting all ballots at a central location instead of in precincts.
The ACLU has said it might sue to stop Cuyahoga County and perhaps other counties from switching completely to paper ballots for the March 4 primary.
Undaunted, Brunner said she plans to meet with Gov. Ted Strickland and legislative leaders Wednesday to discuss her report and the next steps in responding to it.
Brunner said her office is having legislation drafted in three pieces: one to deal with changes needed for the March 4 primary; another focusing on her plan to create large vote centers, each from five or more neighborhood precincts; and a third dealing with other proposals from the study for the fall election, Brunner said.
Link to article: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2008/01/12/brunner_meet.ART_ART_01-12-08_B1_MQ91ME2.html