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Stifling dissent

Are touch-screen supporters in Brunner's sights?

The first statewide election on Jennifer Brunner's watch went smoothly, including voting in the 53 counties in Ohio that used electronic touch-screen machines. A tiny fraction of voters took advantage of the secretary of state's directive that paper ballots be provided as an alternative. Still, Brunner pushes for the elimination of touch screens by the fall election, substituting with paper ballots and optical scanners. Her pursuit remains an expensive and potentially disruptive proposition.

Has Brunner, a Democrat, squelched dissent on this issue? In at least two situations recently examined by the Columbus Dispatch, election officials who resisted Brunner's drive to eliminate touch-screen voting got the sack.

In Hardin County, James Crates was not reappointed last month. The Republican chairman of the county elections board, which uses touch screens, voted against Brunner's order to provide paper ballots. Also disturbing was the firing of Keith Cunningham, a Republican member of the Ohio Board of Voting Machine Examiners, who was fired in February after saying he would not support the elimination of touch-screen voting. Besides a decade as director of the Allen County Board of Elections, Cunningham has served as president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials and a member of the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission.

Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, also faced pressure from Brunner over his support of touch-screen voting, long in use in the Columbus area. As head of the statewide association of election officials, he clashed last year with Brunner. When the Franklin elections board reorganized last week, Damschroder was made deputy director.

After commissioning a report on electronic voting that dwelled on theoretical possibilities of tampering rather than any hard evidence from an Ohio election, Brunner would benefit from the practical advice of experienced election officials. Instead, she appears to have pushed them aside.

The first statewide election on Jennifer Brunner's watch went smoothly, including voting in the 53 counties in Ohio that used electronic touch-screen machines. A tiny fraction of voters took advantage of the secretary of state's directive that paper ballots be provided as an alternative. Still, Brunner pushes for the elimination of touch screens by the fall election, substituting with paper ballots and optical scanners. Her pursuit remains an expensive and potentially disruptive proposition.

Get the full article here.


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