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Playing Politics With Elections
The Toledo Blade
January 16, 2008
With public trust in Ohio elections in the balance, leave it to the state Republican Party to try to carve out partisan advantage. That's the inescapable indication of what's afoot in Columbus after word leaked about a secret meeting of Republican members of county boards of elections called by state party apparatchiks this week to stir up opposition to Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's plan to scrap touch-screen voting. Instead of helping to figure out how to make elections in this state more secure amid real questions raised by an independent study that cast serious doubt on the integrity of touch-screen voting, GOP operatives appear to be continuing down the low road with an undeserved partisan jab at Ms. Brunner. Indeed, a key reason Ohio's election system is in doubt now is because of Republican obstructionism at both the state and national levels following the contested presidential election in 2000. Even after that election laid bare the inaccuracy of punch-card voting in Florida, GOP leaders claimed no problems existed and refused to take any action for nearly two years. They didn't want to admit that defects in punch-card systems, which were also in use in Ohio and elsewhere, had given a Republican tainted entree to the White House. This GOP footdragging delayed the process of election reform and, worse, prevented meaningful, nonpartisan deliberation over what election systems should be adopted. In what finally became a hasty attempt to do something, many counties adopted touch-screen devices. They're now in use in 57 of the 88 counties. Lucas County employs them; so do Wood, Fulton, Henry, Defiance, Hancock, Paulding, and Van Wert counties. Ms. Brunner says she has lost confidence in the electronic voting devices because, according to the study she commissioned, they can malfunction indiscriminately or easily be tampered with, potentially throwing the outcome of elections in doubt. To calm fears prior to the March 5 primary, she has ordered counties to print extra paper ballots, which will be counted with optical scanners. She wants all counties to switch entirely to scanned ballots in time for the Nov. 4 presidential election. Ms. Brunner's plan, which still must be approved by the General Assembly, would involve a big undertaking on relatively short notice for county election officials, and it would cost taxpayers a huge sum - an estimated $31 million. But we believe the change is necessary to maintain essential public trust in free and fair elections, the cornerstone of our democracy. And, although time is running out, it's doable if everyone works together. GOP leaders fail to understand that boards of elections are organized on a bipartisan basis as a way to discourage partisanship from tainting the way votes are cast and counted, not to invite unproductive political wrangling.
