Sun Mar 14 2010
by Marc Kovac
Capital Bureau Chief
Columbus -- Outside of a few machine glitches, minor confusion over allowable voter identification at the polls and provisional ballot pandemonium in central Ohio, Tuesday's presidential election went smoothly, the state's top elections official said Nov. 5.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner attributed the results to the advance work of her office and county boards to implement uniform election-day procedures, complete poll-worker training and provide backup paper ballots to anyone who requested one.
"I think that the process worked for the voters, and that's what I was after," Brunner said. "I resigned my job as a judge (to run for Secretary of State) to have a night like we had last night. Because I never wanted the people of the state of Ohio to be tagged with the things we were tagged with for our 2004 election ... and I wanted the voters of the state of Ohio to have confidence in the voting system."
Unlike recent elections, there were no last-minute legal filings Nov. 4 to keep polls open, and there were few calls to the Secretary of State's Office about problem spots around the state, Brunner said.
The average wait time to vote statewide was never more than an hour. About 4.9 million of 8.3 million registered voters (about 60 percent) participated, according to initial results, which did not include totals from several counties that were still processing ballots.
There were issues that will need to be addressed, however.
For example, it appeared that Franklin County required about 35,000 voters to use provisional ballots after their names were inappropriately flagged in a database, Brunner said.
Additionally, some counties did not have access to the proper equipment to total paper ballots, delaying final counts.
Those and other issues likely will be pinpointed through a review of the 2008 election -- a process that could result in legislation or policy changes.
"I don't think I have all the answers, so what I really want to do is bring together a good cross section of people -- Democrat, Republican, some voting experts -- and do a post election review and see where we could improve Ohio's laws so that there's a smoother implementation for boards of elections," Brunner said. "And then, hopefully, if we have some real genuine bipartisan participation whatever law changes that we would need for the benefit of the voter could sail pretty smoothly through the Legislature."
Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com.
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