Blackwell's obligation to Ohio and its voters is clear

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has an enormous job ahead of him: assuring that all eligible Ohioans have an opportunity to vote in the presidential election Nov. 2 and that every vote is counted.
The eyes of the nation are on Ohio, as Blackwell learned last week when some of his pre-election policies attracted the editorial attention of no less than The New York Times. Blackwell is not stranger to national attention. He has gotten favorable notice before in The Wall Street Journal, which applauded his fiscal conservatism. The Times was less laudatory.
Blackwell came under criticism for what could well be called a case of putting form over substance in the matter of voter registration. He issued a directive Sept. 7 telling election officials in Ohio's 88 counties that they should not accept registration forms unless they were printed on & quot;80-pound text paper, & quot; a heavy, cardlike stock.
Under criticism -- including an overwrought demand by some Democratic politicians that Blackwell resign -- he reversed the directive.
State law does, indeed, require registration cards to be on heavy stock, which makes them easier to file and retain. However, federal election law requires states too follow registration procedures that encourage, not discourage, voter participation.
Blackwell has now instructed board of elections to process registration forms regardless of the weight of paper they are printed on.
Ironically, it was Blackwell who, as early as May, warned county elections officials that they better be prepared to run a flawless general election or prepare to face national ridicule reminiscent of what happened to Florida in the aftermath of the last presidential election.
Because Ohio even then was seen as a battleground state, Blackwell noted that national news outlets and special-interest groups had made it known they would be paying close attention to Ohio.
& quot;Our goal is to provide all Ohio voters with the information they need to vote so that we can reduce the opportunity for difficulties on Election Day, & quot; said Blackwell at a convention of election officials.
Somewhere between spring and fall, Blackwell apparently lost his way.
Now, a month before the election, we hope he has regained his bearings.
One issue yet to be resolved is another instruction Blackwell issued to county boards of elections regarding provisional ballots. Those are ballots cast by voters whose precinct has changed since the last time they voted, but that change is not reflected in board of elections records.
Again, Blackwell issued an instruction that seems to be unnecessarily restrictive. He told boards that such voters can only cast a provisional ballot if they appear at the correct precinct.
Given a possible record number of voters who are expected at this hotly contested presidential race in a battleground state, turning voters away from one polling place and demanding that they travel to another is not good public policy. The validity of a provisional ballot can be determined as part of the count regardless of where the ballot was cast.
At the end of last week, Blackwell announced his office's & quot;Your Vote Counts & quot; program, which he said will reach out to voters with printed materials and a new Web site, and through public service messages on television and radio and in newspapers.
That's fine, as far as it goes. It is up to Blackwell, however, as the elected official entrusted with overseeing the integrity of the ballot, that voters get to vote without unnecessary interference, and that their votes count.