Mixed reaction to voting ideas

The Ohio secretary of state’s suggestions drew criticism from voting rights activists.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner continued stripping the mystery from Ohio’s electronic voting machines Tuesday with a behind-the-scenes look at the state’s recent groundbreaking security study.

Brunner, a Democrat, continued to draw both praise and criticism for recommendations she made Friday after finding all the touch-screen machines in the state are vulnerable to tampering and manipulation.

Gov. Ted Strickland, the man who led a Democratic resurgence in Ohio politics last year, said he wants to see the state’s voting machines fixed or replaced before voters pick the next president, as Brunner has suggested.

Strickland said the state must act by November on findings of a study released last week. The review by corporate and academic scientists concluded the state’s electronic voting machines are vulnerable to security breaches and human error.

“This country has gone through two presidential elections where there have been, I believe, legitimate concerns raised about the fairness and the integrity of those elections,” he said. “I don’t think we should go through a third presidential election and have those questions out there.”

In 2004, President Bush’s victory in Ohio gave him a second term in the White House. Critics accused the state’s then-elections chief Ken Blackwell, like Bush a Republican, of using his office to the advantage of his party and also questioned whether voting machines were accurately recording the vote.

Blackwell lost in a 2006 gubernatorial bid against Strickland.

Voting rights advocates, however, held a teleconference Tuesday sponsored by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law to point out what they see as flaws in Brunner’s recommendations for addressing problems.

They said there are numerous vulnerabilities with electronic voting systems in Ohio. But they also objected to the secretary’s recommendation to eliminate vote counting at precincts.