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.