Brunner weighing options for election

Most elections officials oppose the paper-ballot
systems.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Without support from a skeptical Legislature, Ohio’s top elections official faces two drastic options to realize her quest of ridding the nation’s seventh-largest state of touch-screen voting machines by the November election.

Inaction from lawmakers hamstrung by a projected budget deficit would force Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner into a sticky political position. Her unilateral options — decertifying the machines without providing funding to replace them, or removing county elections board members who oppose her — would likely cause an uproar just months before a massive election.

Brunner herself has said she is loath to be that aggressive in her effort to impose optical-scan voting systems on 57 Ohio counties using touch-screens. Elections officials in a majority of the counties have said they don’t want the systems, in which a computer scanner reads paper ballots.

Both Brunner and the counties claim to have the allegiance of Ohio voters, who may again play a pivotal role in choosing the nation’s next president in November.

In a survey conducted by Brunner, 71 percent of county election officials said they didn’t have concerns after a report she commissioned found security problems with touch-screen machines. The report did not consider the probability that a breach would occur, or the preventive effects of basic polling-place security measures, they said. Counties want to be able to choose which type of voting system they will use.

Complaints about Brunner’s proposal are flowing into the offices of state lawmakers, who found out this week that there will be, at best, a $733 million budget deficit by the end of June 2009, and at worst, a $1.9 billion gap. Brunner will ask them to divert state money into the estimated $30 million in election changes she wants.

“I haven’t heard anyone [lawmakers] say they agree with the recommendations,” said state Sen. John Carey, a Wellston Republican who reluctantly supported funding the voting machine study as a member of the state Controlling Board.

The Republican lawmakers most closely involved in the debate over the elections changes are “lukewarm at best” to switching the machines, said Aaron Ockerman, a lobbyist for the Ohio Association of Election Officials.

“I hope that no one approaches the discussion with the position that they are not willing to compromise or work with the other side,” said Republican House Speaker Jon Husted, who believes both types of voting machines are acceptable.

House Democratic Leader Joyce Beatty did not specifically advocate for a switch to optical-scan machines but said she will work toward a solution that ensures voter confidence and protection, said spokesman Phil Saken.

Brunner remains hopeful that a statewide solution can be worked out but also remains committed to having counties switch to an optical-scan system, said spokesman Jeff Ortega.

Brunner is aware of the drawbacks in her two drastic options.

But without action from the Legislature, one side must give in.

Brunner initially wanted counties that don’t already do so to send ballots from precincts to central sites for counting to increase security, but she backed off after facing opposition from local officials. She said last week she had compromised once and wanted local officials to move toward her this time.

Since her report on the machines was made public in mid-December, unsolicited calls and e-mails have come into Brunner’s office at roughly a four-to-one rate in favor of her proposed changes, she said.

But counties point to a Brigham Young University study after the 2006 elections, in which 55.2 percent of voters in Franklin County — a touch-screen county — were very confident their ballot would be counted accurately. More than 34 percent said they were confident, while 10.3 percent said they were not too confident, or not at all confident.

That compared to 54.7 very confident, 36.7 confident, and 8.6 percent who were not confident in Summit County, which uses an optical-scan system.