Has Hell Frozen Over?

Was it just four years ago (maybe two) when Democrats around the country were braying -- and Republicans were trumpeting -- the "bring an ID" rules to vote? Court cases were filed charging the requirement that those of us deciding the fate of the strongest nation in the free world would actually be called upon to show we were who we said we were came and went, because now those who cried loudest are making sure voters ARE who they say they are.

Or at least can prove it with a driver's license, state ID, bank statement, utility bill or paycheck stub. Knowing those last four numbers on your social security number will work as well.

I guess the ACORN really doesn't fall far from the trees. Thanks to Progress Ohio for the video and inspiration.

Ohio's Voting Mess

As the final Obama-McCain debate starts what a sad story crosses the wire from the AP's Terry Kinney:

"Close to one in every three newly registered Ohio voters will end up on court-ordered lists being sent to county election boards because they have some discrepancy in their records, an elections spokesman said Wednesday.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner estimated that an initial review found that about 200,000 newly registered voters reported information that did not match motor-vehicle or Social Security records, Brunner spokesman Kevin Kidder said. Some discrepancies could be as simple as a misspelling, while others could be more significant."

What is really sad about this is it comes after a court fight where Brunner had to agree with judges who determined she simply had to get off the can and start doing the job.

Some basic questions we should be asking all of the politicians, statewide and local, charged with safeguarding not only the right to vote but the expectation it's clean; starting with why did it take so long? Why did it take those embarassing reports on Palestra.net (a college-based news site...it took college students to get to the meat of this story) to force an honest evaluation of the shenanigans going on? Why did it take stories of one person registered 76 times and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo listed as registering to vote in Ohio to wake up Columbus to the fact that something was amiss? Why does it take a lawsuit in federal court to make elected officials do their duty?

Critics say ACORN...the group of community activists who earlier noted there were problems with their registration drives but it really wasn't their fault...knows full well how these numbers look more like a parody of Chicago-based ward politics. I did a quick Google search this evening on ACORN offices located in Ohio and no surprises as offices in Akron are not only in the same block as local Democratic Party headquarters (also the Obama local campaign headquarters) but the same building. One is 3 Merriman Road, the other 9 Merriman Road. Add that to the growing list of search results on the story. At least there's a nearby Rockne's for lunch to compare voter registration strategy, maybe over a Firestone salad.

There are local examples of this mentality. Summit County Elections Board member Brian Daley took issue with a recent posting where I took the four members of that board to task for the excessive partisanship that's led to decision after decision having to be decided by the fifth member of the board -- Secretary of State Brunner. His point was that much of the blame should go on the shoulders of Democrat Wayne Jones, and for him to side with a Jones-Tim Gorbach block would ignore the issues. The flip side argument, of course, is that Daley and Jack Morrison do the exact same thing on the Republican side.

My response to Daley was that he and Gorbach actually have a great opportunity if they both were to exercise judgment on behalf of the people instead of partisan interests. Should the voters and taxpayers tolerate these blind lock-step votes that deny parties and candidates the opportunity to have observers at early voting? Our Summit County board deadlocked on what is a basic premise of fairness: watching the watchers.

Must the hiring of clerks actually become something that requires a decision by a state official? This week two Summit County elections workers, both in their 70s, actually got into a physical fight with one another when one was apparently marked a ballot for Obama when the nursing home voter wanted to vote for McCain. It was enough to trigger a police report and now a special meeting Thursday morning (yet another one, so how special can they really be?) of the elections board members to review the case. The issue: the one worker who discovered the problem was taken off the job along with the one who made the mistake.

According to this rationale both Jones and Alex Arshinkoff should have been removed from the local elections board on the philosophy that since both of the kids are squabbling send 'em both to bed without supper.

Should any of us be surprised this winds up as yet another tie vote?

We deserve better. A lot better. From all of 'em.

Afraid To Watch?

Today's vote by the Summit County Board of Elections -- deadlocking yet again, this time over whether political parties and candidates should be able to watch democracy in action. Funny how the very officials who should stand for open and transparent government won't put their votes behind the rhetoric.

This really isn't a partisan issue, it's pretty basic: allowing people to watch the voting process. Other counties in Ohio are doing it but because it isn't specifically spelled out in Ohio's complex election laws, so the Secretary of State left it up to local election boards on whether to allow party and candidate observers to watch voting.

Important note: watch as in observe, not challenge.

This includes the early absentee voting taking place now at The Jobs Center on East Tallmadge, in a cavernous building big enough to easily handle two hockey rinks and an arena football game. I got a good sense of just how big, when I joined a friend in doing our patriotic duty earlier this afternoon. Dozens of voting machines, helpful elections workers making sure the t's are crossed and i's are dotted for those of us who know who and what we'll be voting for and against.

Why, for example, can observers watch the political process in Baghdad and Kabul but not Akron? To avoid "confusion," says Board of Election member Wayne Jones. I guess walking in, signing a paper, going to a booth and filing in the circles away from public view from people watch you is too much for the average voter to bear. Remembering the joy of people enjoying and employing the right to vote (left: it hasn't been that long ago in Iraq, has it?) stands as a reminder of what really makes democracy strong: the will of the people, symbolized by ink-stained fingers.


In years past Democrats such as Jones had a powerful argument when the state law actually allowed observers to personally and physically challenge votes; it was a major bone of contention in 2000 and 2004 that some voters felt uncomfortable with the prospect of some blue (or red) nose peeking at them doing their business, then trying to get their vote thrown out. The General Assembly wisely updated the law to remove the challenge but left open the basic American concept of transparency in government by not removing the ability to observe.

This actually has a parallel in case law; in 2006, then-Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell tried to argue having the media observe people casting ballots was disruptive, and precinct leaders were justified in tossing reporters and photographers out. The Akron Beacon Journal led the charge at the time in bringing the matter to U.S. District Court -- I know, because RTNDA joined in that case arguing it was contrary to the public interest and a slap in the face to democracy in suggesting that open and honest elections would be held without the open. It didn't take long for a judicial two-by-four to the head, ordering the State to cut it out.

Now in Summit County a free press can do what a free people cannot -- observe our fellow citizens voting.

It isn't surprising Democrat Jones opposes observers: the political Yin to his Yang, Republican Alex Arshinkoff, is the one pushing to get observers in The Job Center. What Wayne wants, Alex doesn't want, and vice-versa. You might make the same observation about GOP member Jack Morrison; he's been around the same partisan block a time or two. But for newbies Republican Brian Daley and Democrat Tim Gorbach to agree to treat the election process as something to be done out-of-sight is just plain sad.

Jones and Morrison can be excused in forgetting some of the basic lessons learned in local government since they've played bigwig insiders for so long, but Daley and Gorbach aren't that far removed from their service on city governments in Hudson and Cuyahoga Falls. Can you imagine the outcry if the same standard were applied to council meetings in those cities, denying interested parties the right to even sit in the same room while government marched on it's merry way?

Here we sit with another deadlocked Board of Elections, another vote that must be decided by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. At this point Akron should ask for a piece of her salary to satisfy city income taxes, with all her work as a defacto fifth member of the Summit County board. It will be even sadder if she, predictably as in the past, sides with her own party leaders who mistakenly believe the business of the people is too "confusing" to be observed by the people.

Of the people. By the people. It would be refreshing to remember "for the people."

Keeping the voting process open -- even to critics -- is exactly the kind of transparency that makes the American body politic a work of wonder in the rest of the world. It may not be pretty; at times it very well may be "confusing," but at the very least it is something for the entire world to see.


And observe.

Count The Vote!

There pretty much seems to be unanimous agreement that the sacks of undelivered absentee ballots uncounted in last Tuesday's primary election should be part of the process.

I talked with Joe Finley this morning and he was glad to see the movement from City Hall as well as others to make sure those 200+ ballots left on the sidelines aren't just totally blown off. Council President Marco Sommerville and Mayor Don Plusquellic made the call last night in the closing minutes of Council's regular meeting; Law Director Max Rothal made it official this morning.

When is the last time you heard agreement from Finley, Sommerville and Plusquellic? State Representative Stephen Dyer was quick to move on the issue, as noted in AkronNewsNow coverage here where Dyer explains why those votes should count. I'm also told that the Board of Elections was sympathetic but couldn't because of the spanking they would take for reaching into the think-for-themselves-common-sense political cookie jar if they just went ahead and did it. Want to get the votes counted? We can't do it but go ahead and take us to court and get Judge Tommy to order us -- we're good with that.

This one is really a no-brainer and even the Board knows it, but they are handcuffed by state law (I'm translating from SCBOE Director Bryan Williams, who always notes it is the Ohio Revised Code -- state law for guys like me) that forces the Board to ignore ballots that aren't in their hands by 7:30 p.m. when the polls close on Election Day. This year's snafu came when the Post Office didn't have ballots to pick up Tuesday but instead delivered them Wednesday.

Why do we have these conflicts in the law? Thanks to lawmakers pushing the Helping Americans Vote Act to upgrade early voting in the aftermath of the 2000 Bush-Gore battle and not making sure the due diligence extended all the way down the rest of the line. Helping people vote early by using mail-in votes (Oregon's done it for years) saves time and effort and helps avoid longer lines at the polls, but it also places you at the mercy of the postal system.

"Dave" notes in a comment on my earlier posting the USPS doesn't promise delivery on-time unless you pay extra; there's nothing in the law mandating an earlier deadline, say two days before the election, or even guaranteed delivery options. The law simply says get it in the mail, and a postmark should do the trick especially since official results aren't really official for a week to ten days later.

Back to Finley & Plusquellic: the City paid the $250 filing fee to get the lawsuit before Judge Tom Teodosio and asking for an order that the BOE count the votes, but Finley's on board on the principal of the issue. Those 200 or so votes, even if he gets every one of 'em, won't help shrink that thousand-vote deficit but it may have huge impact on the Ward 4 race Deandre Forney won over incumbent Renee Greene (four votes at last count) and the Ward 6 race where incumbent Terry Albanese squeaked by Wayne Kartler by a dozen picks. We really won't know until the forms are actually fed into those scanners and the votes are counted.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has a visit planned to share time with the local Elections board in the next two weeks; expect this kind of thing to be on the agenda.

Note: Forney spelling corrected 9/23, thanks for catching...

Akron's Uncounted

Now the Secretary of State's office has weighed in; spokesman Jeff Ortega (formerly the statehouse bureau reporter for Dix Newspapers; his column was a regular feature in local suburban newspapers printed by the Record Courier as well as the Wooster daily) tells the Akron Beacon Journal the local board of elections can't count the 200+ ballots delivered days late after the 9/11 primary.

No real surprise; the state law is pretty clear on this. What was striking was USPS's Dave Van Allen's comment to the Beacon's Rick Armon, that the postal customers themselves bear some responsibility for waiting until the last minute to drop something so important in the mail.

Uh, Dave, that's what we do. Before e-filing remember the lines outside the Main Post Office on Wolf Ledges every April 15th at 11:50 p.m.? Let's take a shot at the dumb voters now for trusting the post office to do what it says it'll do, which is: deliver the mail on time.

I'm not one to scream for government intervention but this one cries out for the folks at the Statehouse to take another hard look at voting in this day and age. Ohio moved forward when they finally scrapped the antiquated "must swear you are out of town" absentee rules and allowed for early voting; it was a no-brainer, allowed citizens to cast ballots at more convenient times and even helped lighten the load for heavy-interest 2004.

The next giant leap is e-voting. You can order risque underwear, dirty movies, booze, diet pills and music (sex, drugs, and rock & roll for those of you keeping count) over the net but actually participating in democracy can't be done? If you are paranoid enough about web hacking how about simply allowing absentee ballots to be counted based on postmark filing up to the final official canvas, say seven days following the election? It would honk off us media and other political types who want final results five minutes after the polls close but what's more important, satisfying the urge for a quick decision or a decision done right?