Counties frustrated at loss of autonomy over voting procedures
Canton Repository   January 14, 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? Election officials want to be able to choose the voting systems they believe appropriate for their counties and said Thursday they plan to lobby the secretary of state to reconsider a directive establishing statewide use of paper ballots.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, the state?s top election official, told all counties to use optical scan machines that read ballots that voters mark with pencil. He said optical scan is the only affordable option with the federal money allotted for the required conversion from punchcards.

?This flies in the face of decades of tradition and law in Ohio that say local counties choose their own voting systems,? said Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections.

Most of Ohio?s 88 counties still use punchcards.

?We know nothing about optical-scan. It?s going to be a long learning curve,? said Linda Rosicka, director of the Clark County Board of Elections, which is preparing for an election in February.

Thirteen counties now use the optical scan machines but still need to replace them because they?re outdated or lack required equipment to have tabulating machines in each polling place.

Optical scan machines, which read marks on ballots made by voters, are used across the country. Professor Daniel Tokaji, a voting machine expert at Ohio State University, said optical scan and touch-screen machines are the two best options for accuracy. Optical scan has been shown to work very well but can be difficult to administer and requires additional training of poll workers, he said.

Michael Sciortino, president of the Ohio Association of Elected Officials and director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections, said the general reaction from counties has been frustration. The association plans to request a reconsideration of the decision, he said.

?They spent the last two years researching electronic machines and preparing their offices for the retrofit, and now they?re pretty much having to stop and immediately go into a new process with a shorter timeframe,? he said.

Blackwell?s office has approved two companies from which counties can choose, or forfeit Help America Vote Act funds and pay their own way ? an option unlikely for most cash-strapped localities.

?The autonomy was removed because Congress made the secretary of state responsible for the Help America Vote Act,? said Carlo LoParo, Blackwell?s spokesman. ?If the state isn?t in compliance, then the secretary of state will be responsible and be liable for violating the law.?

LoParo said the decision to go with paper ballots was financial. The secretary of state?s office also had considered touch-screens the best option for statewide uniformity, but they were no longer financially viable after 900,000 new voters registered for the November election.

The state legislature in April started requiring additional paper trails, and the $106 million the state has to spend on machines is no longer adequate for the $180 million estimated cost.

Elections officials worry that the long-term cost of printing ballots will overtake the short-term savings of the optical scan systems.

Franklin County?s Damschroder estimated the county would spend $1 million printing ballots in every year with three elections