87% of paper ballots ordered not used

Dayton Daily News

DAYTON

County elections officials don’t question the need for paper ballots as a backup for electronic touch-screen voting machines.

But, they ask, why should they have to buy so many?

In Montgomery County, the elections board spent $22,000 on backup paper ballots that went unused in the Nov. 2 election. Eventually, they’ll be disposed of.

The purchase of so many ballots occurred because of a directive that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner made in response to a lawsuit after the 2004 election.

State Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, who will take over as secretary of state in January, was reluctant to weigh in on any possible changes, including the issue of paper ballots.

But Husted said he is sensitive to the cost issue. “I want to visit with all the local boards before I start coming to any conclusions about any policy that relates to elections in Ohio,” Husted said.

Eliminating the requirement would require federal court approval.

Few Ohio voters are choosing paper ballots in counties that use the electronic touch-screen voting machines. In Ohio, 53 counties use the touch-screen machines, and 35 use paper-ballot optical-scan elections systems.

Paper ballots are needed for absentee voters and for provisional registered voters, who have moved and failed to register at their new address. Also, county board officials said they always will need to have some on hand in case there is a major failure of electronic voting machines or unanticipated long lines.

But the amount required has become controversial — and expensive.

Statewide, at least 443,500 — or 87 percent of paper ballots ordered — were not used, which means at least $155,000 worth of taxpayer dollars will be wasted, according to a conservative analysis by the Dayton Daily News.

That analysis assumes that each board ordered only the minimum required — 15 percent of 2008 voter turnout in each precinct — and that they paid 35 cents per ballot, which is lower than what some pay and higher than what others pay.

Steve Harsman, director of the Montgomery Board of Elections, said Brunner’s mandate forced him to order twice as many ballots as he would have purchased, and far more than the 7,733 that were actually used. After the 22-month waiting period required for federal elections, he will throw away more than 51,000 unused ballots, or 86 percent of what he ordered .