News Summary

Before the election, there was lots of fretting that things could go really badly in Ohio and that the state could end up looking like Florida in 2000.

People said that in 2004, too, and what do you want to bet that they'll say it in 2012?

But Election Day went fine, thank you very much, and, for that, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and the 88 county boards of elections deserve kudos. Even though turnout wasn't as heavy as the predictions suggested, there were lawsuits and directives to respond to and conspiracy theorists to counter. Meanwhile, implementing the change that allowed people to vote early — without having to offer an explanation — put huge new demands on elections officials as they were trying to gear up for Election Day itself.

Notwithstanding the success, some lawmakers want Ohioans to believe that something needs to be fixed — right now. They're proposing to make changes in the early voting law in a lame-duck session of the legislature, rather than follow Secretary Brunner's request that everyone sit tight until after a December conference designed to be a bipartisan post-game wrap-up.

She wants to put together one piece of legislation and make any fixes all at once, when the new legislature takes over next year.

Republicans are not prepared to wait. They're adamant about changing a law that they themselves wrote in 2005 that — inadvertently — allows people to register and vote in the same visit for a one-week window about a month before the actual election. They say this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone opens the door to fraud because there's no time for boards of elections to check out a new registrant's information.

The rush to pass the legislation stems from two things. Democrats are taking over the Ohio House of Representatives in January. They're more supportive of so-called "instant voting" rules. So, even though Secretary Brunner, a Democrat, says she'll support eliminating the short time when people can register and vote, Republicans know she can't control Democratic lawmakers.

Moreover, Republicans have been eager to make Secretary Brunner out to be inept and/or corrupt in anticipation of trying to take her down in two years. She's up for re-election then, and if she and Gov. Strickland are both re-elected, Democrats would have the upper hand in a group that draws state legislative district boundaries. The dominant party in that process tries to draw districts that will give it a better chance of winning seats in the Ohio Legislature.

The Republicans' leading candidate to run against Secretary Brunner is Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, of Kettering. He's already starting to compile his list of criticisms of Secretary Brunner. If he helps pass a law that remedies the potential "fraud" that Republican partisans have been hyping, that would be good for his political resume.

(But, again, remember it was the Republicans who didn't check the calendar to determine what they were doing three years ago when they created the overlap allowing registration and voting simultaneously.)

Another issue at hand is whether to allow county boards of elections to set up more than one polling place for early voters to cast their ballots.

Having just one spot — which is all the law allows now — makes for long lines. And one thing is for sure: Many people who voted early this year will want to do so again. No sense making the process a cattle call.

Elections are supposed to be political. The administration of them, however, should be resolutely nonpartisan. Rushing piecemeal bills through just so Republicans can say they fixed something is overstating the problem and overreacting.