ACLU claims punch ballots unfair to blacks
Saturday, July 24, 2004
By SHANE HOOVER Repository staff writer

CANTON ? Deciding whether chad, hanging or otherwise, will be part of elections in Ohio will sit with a federal judge next week.

A trial pitting the American Civil Liberties Union against Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and state and county election officials is set to begin Monday in federal district court in Akron.

The ACLU filed its suit in October 2002 on behalf of voters from Summit, Montgomery, Hamilton and Sandusky counties. It claims that punch-card and some optical-scan voting systems are unfair, particularly to black residents.

Voters can?t easily check for mistakes before submitting their ballots, thus making the ballots more likely to be disqualified, the ACLU claims.

And that disproportionately penalizes black residents, because they often live and vote in election jurisdictions that use the flawed systems, the lawsuit says.

The ACLU wants the state to stop using the machines and switch to other methods, such as electronic voting or optical-scan systems that count votes at the precinct level, because they let voters know when a ballot has a mistake.

The state denies that its election system disenfranchises citizens.

?Ohio has never denied the vote of anyone,? said Kim Norris, spokeswoman for the Ohio Attorney General. ?We are in compliance and will continue to be in compliance with state and federal laws.?

Stark and other counties use punch cards with numbers that correspond to numbers on ballot pages, allowing voters to check their choices.

The effect of the trial could be far-reaching. Sixty-nine of the state?s 88 counties, including Stark County, use punch-card systems. Eleven counties use optical-scan voting.

The remainder vote electronically or use lever machines.

?Unfortunately, it is too late to replace the machines for the November election, but we hope to improve voting for future elections,? said ACLU volunteer attorney Daniel P. Tokaji.

The judge could decertify all punch cards and central-count optical-scan systems, decertify just one of those methods or order their replacement only in certain counties, Tokaji said.

The trial is coming at a time when officials are in a quandary about the future of electronic voting in Ohio.

Blackwell wanted to replace punch-card systems in the state with electronic voting machines, but lawmakers concerned about the reliability of the ATM-like devices have held off on money to purchase the new machines.

Those lawmakers want machines that give voters a paper record of their vote.

Tokaji said the ACLU doesn?t care whether electronic voting or some other method is the eventual replacement of punch cards, as long as it cuts down on voters having their ballots nullified.

?We had 70,000 votes lost in 2000, and it could be higher this time around,? Tokaji said of November?s contest.