Federal vote panel's hearings not public enough, group says
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Columbus - Ohio Citizen Action wants a federal elections panel to put the "public" back in "public hearing."

The activist group questioned on Monday why public testimony won't be taken at Wednesday's meeting of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Instead, citizens were invited to submit their comments by e-mail. 
 The panel will meet in Columbus to gather information on how provisional voting fared around the country. Voters who appear to be unregistered vote provisionally and their voter record is checked later. In Ohio, 77 percent of the 153,539 provisional ballots cast were found to be valid.

Hand-picking who will testify on the provisional ballot issue could limit the picture the commission gets, said Catherine Turcer, who monitors election issues for Citizen Action.

"Why take the show on the road, unless you want to hear from the public?" she said. "Is this really a public hearing?"

The federal commission, created in the wake of the 2000 presidential election, has invited three panels - representing election officials, academics and voter advocates - to speak at the hearing. The event runs from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University.

Gracia Hillman, who chairs the commission, said people are welcome to submit written testimony of any length, and that commissioners took pains to invite a balanced panel of speakers.

Among participants will be Ohio and Florida secretaries of state Ken Blackwell and Glenda Hood; Cuyahoga County Elections Director Michael Vu; national League of Women Voters president Kay Maxwell; conservative economist John Lott Jr.; and Miles Rapoport, president of the grassroots initiative Demos.

Ohio State law professors Dan Tokaji and Edward Foley are also on the program, as is the Wall Street Journal's John Fund.

Asked why the group isn't hosting an open-mike style forum, she said: "We just don't have enough time."

She said commissioners pledged to hold as many hearings across the country this year as possible.

She said Ohio was chosen for the provisional voting discussion because the law school watched the issue and because Blackwell was sued here over his provisional ballot ruling.

Blackwell directed that provisional ballots should not be counted if they were cast in the wrong precinct, a move grassroots groups protested as exclusionary. A federal court ultimately found in his favor.