Ohio House OKs election reform bill
Roadblocks to voting remain, critics say
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth Cleveland Plain Dealer 

Columbus- A provision aimed at easing public concern over electronic voting eked its way into a sweeping election-reform bill Tuesday, as the legislation passed the Ohio House.

The amendment, which cleared the floor by a single vote, would require counties to crosscheck electronic vote totals against paper records in a single countywide race.

The result of the audit would not be binding, but could quell criticism that the machines are unreliable and subject to manipulation, said Rep. Tom Brinkman, its champion.  

The move came as a Franklin County judge granted Mahoning County's request to block Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's Monday deadline for picking a machine maker.

As a result, Blackwell extended the deadline for three other counties involved in the lawsuit, which continues today.

House Bill 3 otherwise emerged from two hours of floor debate virtually unchanged and passed 70-27. Democrats pushed eight major amendments that they said would have made voting easier and protected against partisanship in elections; all failed.

Rep. Kevin DeWine, sponsor of the bill, touted the legislation as a bipartisan effort to address a host of problems that arose in Ohio leading up to last November's presidential contest.

"While Ohio has a robust set of election laws already in place, a review of the election proved there are areas that need revisions, processes that must be d and laws that must be created to deal with modern-day challenges," said DeWine, a Dayton-area Republican.

Democrats, who saw several key proposals wrapped into the bill in committee, remained critical of provisions they said provide roadblocks to voting.

Namely, they opposed a provision that narrowly defines a voting "jurisdiction" so that votes cast outside the proper precinct will be discounted; and one that converts voters to "provisional" status if a postcard to their home is returned in the mail.

DeWine said the bill's allowance for no-fault absentee voting statewide for all voters - an idea advanced by Democrat Edna Brown of Toledo - should allay critics' access concerns.

Blackwell, a supporter of no-fault absentee voting since 1999, praised the bill for providing "an expanded menu of more convenient voting options."

But in an emotional floor speech, Rep. Barbara Sykes of Akron opposed the bill as "not enough" for Ohio's African Americans.  

"I am reminded of everything my people, my race, went through to get the right to vote. Walking day after day, having dogs put on them, water sprayed on them, children blown up in church. . ." Sykes said.

"So you may ask, when will it be enough? It will be enough when every person can vote, and every vote is counted."

Sykes' words swayed at least one representative: Cleveland Democrat Annie Key. Key is the ranking Democrat on the House Elections & Ethics Committee and, as such, was her party's chief liaison on the legislation.

Key said she, like Sykes, grew up in the South and "had to find a way to vote no" despite her previous support.