Ohio Mandates Paper Ballots For Primary

It's been 7+ years and millions of dollars wasted ... but we may finally be on the road to replacing confusing and potentially compromised voting systems with paper, counted by optical scanners.

The Ohio Secretary of State is mandating paper be an option for all voters in the 4 March primary; affected are 55 (57) counties with touchscreen machines.

The Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, wants all 88 Ohio counties to use optical-scan voting systems in the November election. One challenge for the primaries: she wants centralized counting; this means that if a voter makes a mistake, there will be no way to know about it or correct it. When ballots are scanned on site, the voter has an opportunity to fix any mistake (over or under votes) before submittal. (I voted with optical scanners at the polling place throughout the 90s, until I joined the ranks of permanent absentee voters.)

County officials are complaining about the short notice (two months). Paper ballots are already required for absentee voters and anyone casting a provisional vote at the polls. This edict means that counties must print additional ballots but does not require that voters be told they have this voting option.

According to WKYC, Brunner said "problems in November's vote with Diebold equipment like server crashes and unreadable printouts made change necessary. And she decided sooner was better than later."

Brunner also wants to reform polling locations, moving from "neighborhood polling places to large voting centers like shopping malls, libraries and other big buildings." This proposal requires legislative endorsement. Voting places would be open 15 days before election day; the government would also encourage absentee voting.

Brunner, a Democrat, replaced Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, who simultaneously served as co-chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign in Ohio and Secretary of State, overseeing the election.

Also, see:

• eVoting Flawed : A GAO Review
• Help America Vote Act - HAVA
• The "Let America Vote" Act ... and Letting America Know
• Diebold Machine Found in Bar
• Ohio City to Re-Vote After Diebold Over-votes
• Election Equipment Vendors - Diebold
• Voting Systems - State-by-State
• Status of Electronic Voting Systems
• Election Fraud - An Overview