Blackwell breaks tie; local voters to use touch screens
Secretary sides with GOP election officials

By FRITZ WENZEL
BLADE POLITICAL WRITER

Voters in Lucas County will use touch-screen voting machines under a decree issued yesterday by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

The secretary's order breaks a deadlock between local election officials who were split over whether to buy optical-scan machinery or the touch screens, which Mr. Blackwell said yesterday "would better suit the needs of Lucas County."

"The county is one of Ohio's most populous, and its voting population is very diverse. The [touch-screen] system offers greater flexibility in several ways that allow it to better serve that diverse population," Mr. Blackwell said in a statement.

He also highlighted the system's ability to "accommodate more ballot styles than the optical-scan system can. It also has the capability of offering ballots in languages other than English, an asset that may need to be implemented in the not-too-distant future."

Touch-screen systems offer more flexibility for voters with disabilities and help voters do a better job casting ballots because they steer the voter through the entire ballot, Mr. Blackwell said.

The federal government will pick up the tab for most of the costs of the county's new machines, estimated to be $2.5 million, as part of the federal Help America Vote Act signed into law last year. That law was designed to voting systems nationwide to help avoid a repeat of the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida.

Mr. Blackwell's decision comes after the four-member county elections governing board deadlocked on the issue at its meeting Jan. 14. Democrats Paula

Ross and Diane Brown voted for optical-scan voting equipment, while Republicans Bernadette Noe and Sam Thurber opted for touch-screen machines.

Both sides argued for their favored voting systems in "position papers" submitted Tuesday to Mr. Blackwell, a Republican who as secretary of state is charged with breaking tie votes cast by county elections boards.

Democrats wrote that "unanswered concerns regarding the security issues" surrounding touch-screen machines made them an "unacceptable" choice.

Republicans countered that buying optical-scan machines would mean "voters will be stuck with a system based on old technology that is harder to use and will not benefit from the inherent advantages of electronic voting."

"I am very happy that the secretary of state seriously considered the position statements on both sides in making his decision," said Ms. Noe, who is chairman of the elections board and also is chairman of the county Republican Party.

"He was highly persuaded by our arguments and took this process very seriously. This is the most critical decision we will ever have to make as a board, and I believe that this is in the best interest of the voters of Lucas County."

Ms. Ross, who is chairman of the county Democratic Party, said the board can now move forward to make elections work in the county.

"I am disappointed that the decision was made before all of the very important questions about security have been answered. I am worried about the effect that will have on the confidence of the voters, but I am committed to working with the system that the secretary has chosen," Ms. Ross said.

The new voting equipment will replace antiquated lever voting machines purchased by the county in the early 1960s. Those machines performed poorly in the November, 2002, election and then were retired.