Hearing on election turns heated
Blackwell, Tubbs Jones spar over ads
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Cleveland Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - A fiesty Secretary of State Ken Blackwell defended his handling of the presidential election at a sometimes heated congressional field hearing Monday.

Blackwell repeatedly interrupted a pair of Democratic questioners at a meeting of the Committee on House Administration to explain the controversial directives and divisive decisions that marked his administration of the 2004 contest. 
 His testimony culminated in a sparring match with Cleveland congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a vocal critic of his rulings, in which she told him to "haul butt" if he wouldn't answer her questions.

Blackwell, a Cincinnati Republican, retorted: "I refuse to sit here and be harangued by you."

Ohio Rep. Bob Ney, author of the Help America Vote Act, written in the wake of the controversial 2000 election, brought his panel to Ohio to hear how HAVA worked in the state.

Ney, a St. Clairsville Republican, told reporters he would not consider extending the act's deadline for states to convert to electronic voting machines from 2006 to 2008.

State Rep. Kevin DeWine, a Dayton-area Republican, made a blunt request for the extension during his testimony. Ohio is among states that opted amid public concern to require a so-called "paper trail" for the machines, but the technology is still largely undeveloped and untested.

Ney said giving Ohio an extension would "create a domino effect around the country" that would not be practical.

He said a nationwide extension is out of the question.

DeWine said House Republicans are reviewing the matter and may yet consider scrapping the paper trail mandate because of the conflict it created between federal and state law.

Blackwell and most county election officials who testified Monday defended Ohio's bipartisan election system and its performance on Election Day.

But all complained that the abundance of activists, campaign lawyers and new voters in the state taxed the system.

Tubbs Jones grilled Blackwell on the $2.5 million voter education ad campaign in which he starred, noting that neither TV nor radio spots told Cuyahoga County voters they could legally vote at their Board of Elections.

"So you specifically excluded that language?" she asked. Blackwell quipped that he was elected by a statewide constituency "much larger than" hers and made the call on the ads' language with the help of a bipartisan consulting firm.

Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, a California Democrat, questioned whether Blackwell's directives on the paper weight of voter registration forms and the issuing of provisional ballots were designed to confuse voters.

In a veiled reference to criticism by Tubbs Jones, Blackwell stuck by his characterization of attacks on Ohio's election as "nasty and disingenuous."

"It's silly on its face to think there was some kind of bipartisan conspiracy to disenfranchise blacks and inner city voters when you had blacks and Democrats in charge," he said.