ACLU tries to end punch-card voting
Ohio election system called unconstitutional
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Karen Farkas
Plain Dealer Reporter

Akron- U.S. District Judge David Dowd said when he first voted, he would mark an X next to the candidate or issue on his paper ballot.

Voting is not so simple today and new technology begat new problems, as evidenced by the trial that began Monday in Dowd's courtroom.

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking a ruling that Ohio's punch-card voting system is unconstitutional because it does not give voters a second chance if they make mistakes.

The ACLU also claims that minorities are disenfranchised because studies have shown they have more voting errors on those machines, including punching more than one vote for a candidate or issue.

The organization is not seeking to have the voting system changed for the November 2004 election. It wants Dowd to decertify punch-card voting because it does not provide a notice, as those on electronic devices, that a voter has overvoted or not voted.

It also wants Dowd to later determine any remedies to the plaintiffs and when the decertification should occur.

But the state claims the ACLU's lawsuit is moot because the state plans to replace the punch-card system by the 2005 election, said Assistant Attorney General Richard Conglianese.

In October 2002, the ACLU sued Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Summit, Montgomery, Hamilton and Sandusky counties, stating that punch-card voting violates the 14th Amendment, which guarantees due process and equal protection.

Lawsuits, the result of punch-card voting and "hanging chad" problems in Florida following the 2000 presidential election, were filed by the ACLU in other states. Those resulted in agreements to replace punch-card voting. The case in Ohio is the first to go to trial.

People vote by punch card in 69 of Ohio's 88 counties, representing 75.5 percent of the state's registered voters. Of the nonpunch-card counties, 11 use optical scan equipment, six use electronic voting equipment and two use lever machines.

According to information provided by the secretary of state and submitted by the ACLU, of the 3.56 million ballots cast in the 2000 presidential election by punch-card voters, 2.3 percent, or 81,767 were not counted because the voter either did not cast a ballot or voted for more than one candidate.

In the counties with electronic voting, 12,653, or about 1 percent, of the 1.2 million ballots cast were not counted.

In a close race, votes that cannot be counted because of errors, such as those that can be made in punch-card voting, can have far-reaching effects, said Paul Moke, the lead attorney for the ACLU.

The ACLU said that the higher rate of noncounted ballots for minorities is a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Conglianese countered that it would be a violation if people were denied the right to vote, but that did not occur.

"This is not the Scopes Monkey Trial for punch cards," Conglianese said, referring to the famous 1925 trial over evolution and creationism. "You have to look at the limited issue and Ohio runs a good election."

The trial will continue this week with testimony from experts for both sides, who will explain the conclusions they reached based on studies, statistics, exit polling and data.