New bill would mandate recounts before electoral vote

JOHN McCARTHY  Associated Press   20 April 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A revamped elections bill would require the state to finish its recount in a presidential election six days before the vote of the Electoral College and make other changes prompted by last November's election in Ohio.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Kevin DeWine, a Fairborn Republican, answers some of the questions raised by lawsuits filed before, after, and in one case, during the Nov. 2 election.

"It takes a lot of what once was (the secretary of state's) directive or left to the boards of elections and puts it into code," DeWine said Wednesday. "It's to take some of that uncertainty out and to provide specifics of how to run elections in Ohio."

The bill also would raise the price of a recount requested by a candidate to $50 a precinct from $10 a precinct, which had not been changed since the 1950s. Ohio law mandates recounts in any statewide election decided by less than one-fourth of 1 percentage point. However, losing candidates can request one and if the outcome doesn't change, they are charged the fee.

Last year, the presidential candidates of the Green and Libertarian parties asked for a recount of Ohio's presidential election, which President Bush won by 2 percentage points.

The recount, which didn't change the election's outcome, cost the candidates about $113,000, but state elections officials said county boards of elections actually spent $1.5 million. The recount also was finished after the Electoral College vote, in which Ohio's 20 votes were key to Bush's re-election victory.

The bill, currently in the House Elections & Ethics Committee, also would require a vote of the county elections board to allocate voting machines throughout precincts. On Election Day, the Ohio Democratic Party filed a lawsuit to force alternative methods of voting after reports of voters waiting in line up to seven hours. The Democrats have since asked to be removed from the lawsuit, but it is pending in federal court.

The bill also would:

_ Specify that election workers may direct voters to their correct precincts. Provisional ballots cast outside a voter's correct precinct cannot be counted, but some counties collected such ballots, then disqualified them.

_ Allow voters to use absentee ballots without giving a reason. Current law requires voters to be 62 or older, be out of the country on Election Day, have a relative hospitalized or meet other requirements.

_ Move the statewide primary in presidential election years from March to May. The Legislature moved the date up to give Ohio more clout in presidential elections, but county boards and candidates have complained about the early date.

_ Prohibit candidates for federal office from running for state or local office, currently permitted in Ohio.

_ Purge the rolls of ineligible voters no later than 120 days after a general election.

_ Establish the statewide voter database mandated by the Help America Vote Act as a public record.

_ Change the filing deadline for candidates and ballot issues from 90 days before an election to 75 days.

_ Require the secretary of state to publish directives on the agency's Web site within 24 hours.

DeWine said he rewrote the bill with input from Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and other elections officials. Blackwell's staff had not had time to review all the changes and had no comment, spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

DeWine said at least two more hearings will be held to debate the bill, which the committee will decide whether to recommend to the full House.