Ohio's universal voting standards could become law

by Amanda Iacone
Staff Writer

Unlike Florida’s November election, Athens County primary elections went off without a hitch Tuesday night.

All ballots were counted by 8:45 that night, said Susan Gwinn, the democratic chair of the Board of Elections. About 20 people helped with the ballot counting and many more volunteered at the polls, she said. Helpers received instructions on how to tally a hanging chad using a statewide standard.

Athens County is one of 70 counties in Ohio that use the punch card system – the same system that caused the confusion in Florida, which has officially banned them from use, said J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State.

Blackwell traveled to Athens yesterday to take part in the Athens County Bar Association's Law Day activities. He spoke at a luncheon and to an Ohio University Law Club meeting, said Ellsworth Holden a professor in the College of Business.

Blackwell said he knows the public's confidence in the punch card system is waning, but the state would not mandate a statewide system.

"The worst thing we could do right now is to federalize the election system," Blackwell said.

A centralized system has a higher risk of manipulation, he said.

Computer-assisted voting, for example, could give hackers a chance to alter voting results or create viruses that could affect the computer program, Blackwell said.

Ohio uses a variety of methods, including levers, electronic touch screens and bubble sheets. Levers are considered most accurate but are no longer available, he said.

"All of these systems have their pluses and minuses," he said.

But Blackwell said Florida’s voting problems would not happen in Ohio, because Ohio uses universal standards for voting and counting punch card ballots.

Those standards could become law if Ohio Gov. Bob Taft signs an election reform bill out of the House of Representatives.

"I believe the punch card system has proven reliable," Blackwell said yesterday. "You can't have a system where people doubt the reliability."

Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, sponsored a similar bill in the Senate. He carried the bill on the Senate floor, said Susan Wittstock, a spokeswoman for Hottinger. Senate passed the bill in 20-13 vote on Tuesday and sent the bill to the governor’s office, she said.

Blackwell also said several other differences exist between Ohio and Florida. Punch card ballot designs differ greatly between the two states. Florida's candidates have a fixed position on each and every ballot, whereas Ohio rotates candidates' names on each ballot. This prevents one candidate from receiving the full repercussions of a machine malfunction.

All boards of elections in Ohio are balanced politically with a member of each party as chairperson. Florida's conveyance boards are composed of three people who could all potentially be from the same political party.

Blackwell does expect federal funding to help counties who want to update their voting machines in the future. But some congressmen expect the updates to cost more than $3.5 billion across the country.

"There's added protection in diversity," he said.