Ohio’s Brunner named winner of Kennedy award

By MARK NIQUETTE

Many Democratic officials in Ohio don’t agree with Brunner’s actions.

Jennifer Brunner will receive a national award today that calls her courageous for trying to overhaul the state elections, at the same time critics in Ohio are calling her plans costly and reckless with Ohio strapped for cash and the focus of another presidential race.

The secretary of state will accept a John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage Award” in Boston for pushing Ohio away from touch-screen voting machines toward optically scanned paper ballots.

The award, named for Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book highlighting political acts of courage, previously has been bestowed on former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

“Our democracy depends on voter trust,” foundation president Caroline Kennedy said in a news release, adding that Brunner’s efforts to earn that trust is one of the “true profiles in courage.”

It’s been a rocky five months for Brunner since she proposed sweeping changes for this year’s presidential election in the wake of a study that raised doubts about the security and reliability of the state’s voting systems months before the November election.

Many major changes she proposed — especially scrapping touch screens — are languishing for lack of support from the Legislature, county election officials and even fellow Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland on grounds they aren’t needed and would be disruptive.

“It’s like upsetting the hospital before major surgery,” said Keith Cunningham, director of the Allen County Board of Elections. Brunner fired him earlier this year from the state board that approves new voting systems.

Brunner and her supporters say she’s trying to address major problems she inherited, and that she’s a natural target for partisan opposition because she holds a seat on the state Apportionment Board, which redraws legislative districts.

“Some visions take longer than others,” Brunner said. “We were reviled in many places around the country for our 2004 election, and it certainly is a turnaround that I, on behalf of the state, am getting recognition for some fundamental change that will help the voters of our state.”

But even some Democratic county election officials have said they worry that Brunner’s actions will achieve the opposite of her top priority in office: restoring confidence in state elections.

“The errant steps the Brunner administration has taken on the voting-machine front has diminished public confidence but, to be fair, probably not by a lot,” said Dan Tokaji, an Ohio State associate law professor and elections expert.

Tokaji and others say that Brunner overreacted to the study, wasting time trying to replace expensive voting systems that many officials trust and like, instead of beefing up security and addressing voting procedures to minimize any risks.

Still, one reason the JFK Library Foundation chose Brunner was for her insistence that touch-screen counties make paper ballots available in the March 4 primary in case they are needed or wanted.

The other award recipient this year is Debra Bowen, the California secretary of state who decertified touch-screen voting machines to force a switch to paper ballots.

Brunner said that because the estimated $64 million has not been approved to make the switch in Ohio, she plans to order that more paper ballots be made available Nov. 4 in Franklin County and the 52 other touch-screen counties.

She also plans to work with election officials this summer on improved security to address flaws or other vulnerabilities identified by the study, as well as post-election audits to confirm the results.

Brunner said she still plans to push the entire state toward using paper ballots, but she has accepted that it will take longer than she may like.

“Later on, when five years, 10 years from now you go back to the Profile In Courage Web site and they read what I was under fire for at the time and that I stuck to my guns, then they’ll say, ‘She was right,’” Brunner said.

mniquette@dispatch.com