Voter-receipt rule angers Perry challenger

By FRITZ WENZEL
BLADE POLITICAL WRITER

Christopher Myers, a computer expert who is running for state representative from a district in northern Toledo and eastern parts of Lucas County, yesterday called for the General Assembly to repeal at least part of an election reform law passed earlier this year.

Calling Substitute House Bill 262 "one of the worst legislative acts to come out of the statehouse," Mr. Myers, a Republican, said he believes a provision in the law that requires electronic touch screen voting machines to be fitted with printers that can generate a paper printout of a voter's ions for review before the final ballot is cast is expensive, unnecessary, and may make the machinery more prone to failure.

Mr. Myers is the Web master of the University of Michigan Web site.

"I liken this part of the bill to adding a ladder to an elevator. We had something good. Now it is just made more complex.

"The debate and the legislation have focused too much on the technical aspect and not enough on the management of elections and civil rights," Mr. Myers said.

"Let's return the decision-making back to the people who know better, the secretary of state, the Board of Voting Machine Examiners, and the local boards of elections," he said. "This legislation was driven by fear and not by reality."

Mr. Myers is challenging Democratic incumbent Jeanine Perry in House District 49.

"In my judgment, the importance of an election requires checks and balances," Ms. Perry said. "A paper trail for our voting is part of that checks and balances. We've all witnessed the chaos that can be caused when there are questions relative to an election, and the paper trail resolves those questions."

"I get a receipt when I fill up with gas. I get a receipt when I use an ATM machine, and certainly voting is as important," she said.

The voter-receipt printers for touch-screens are at the center of a national controversy. Those who distrust the electronic touch-screen systems say they are necessary to guarantee voters their votes have been properly counted are pitted against those who say modern electronics are far more trustworthy than punch-card and lever voting systems.

Ohio passed its law earlier this year.

The controversy is partly responsible for the delay in purchasing touch-screen machines in Lucas County. Democratic board members Paula Ross and Diane Brown cited the need to have such receipt printers added to their equipment. They refused to vote with Republicans Bernadette Noe and Sam Thurber to buy touch screens earlier this year, forcing the county to lease optical scan machines for the November election.

Using the rented optical scan equipment this fall is expected to cost the county at least $350,000, money it would not have had to pay had the elections board voted to buy the touch screens using federal and state money.