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Will Ohio overhaul its voting systems?
Legislators will deal with secretary of state's bombshell proposal this week.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
COLUMBUS — State legislators don't exactly yawn in presidential election years but their pace usually slows as attention turns to who'll end up in the White House.
During most presidential election years, you'd need an earthquake to shake up the legislative agenda.
Extras
This year a magnet did the job.
A study commissioned by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner found "critical security failures" with Ohio's electronic voting systems, including the frightening prospect that a magnet and personal digital assistant would be enough to compromise an accurate vote count.
Now a bombshell proposal to overhaul the voting system is expected to join Gov. Ted Strickland's energy plan at the top of the agenda when legislators return Wednesday.
For the Nov. 4 presidential election, Brunner wants to scrap $81.7 million in electronic touch-screen voting machines and spend $31 million for a new system that uses paper ballots tabulated on optical scan equipment.
Brunner's plan would fundamentally change how most Ohioans vote, including greatly expanding absentee voting.
She's set a deadline. With the November election looming, she wants the legislature and Strickland to come up with the money and make other changes by mid-April.
Brunner, a Democrat, can't force the Republican-controlled legislature to act. If it doesn't, however, she said she could work with the Board of Voting Machine Examiners to decertify the faulty electronic voting equipment, although she downplayed that possibility.
House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, and other legislative leaders are hearing from local elections officials who are cool to Brunner's plan. Husted also is listening to Brunner.
"These recommendations are from the duly elected secretary of state of Ohio," he said. "We're going to take them seriously."
