The following communication was sent to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Bruner, the members and staff of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, and to the Summit County Board of Elections, on Tuesday October 21, 2008. It is the last of several communications as well as one public appearance before the board, expressing concern about the possibility of serious delays on election day in two key counties, Cuyahoga and Summit:
I am writing to express my concern as a relative newcomer to voting rights advocacy, and as one who initially came to it directly out of activities of a partisan nature via Concerned Democrats. However, my initiation into issues of voting rights came from my experience as a solitary voter who voted early at the Board offices. As I argue below, urgent steps need to be taken to address the growing media criticisms of the degree of preparation for the election in Cuyahoga and Summit Counties in particular and to do so by ensuring that the voters in each polling place have equal opportunity to vote.
As you know, I felt that the long ballot could be more quickly filled out with the felt-tip pens which are certified by your vendor (ES&S) for use with the Model 650 Infra-Red Scanned than with the ballpoint pens certified for use with the Model 100 visible light scanner. Felt-tip pens fill out optical character recognition ovals four to five times as quickly as ballpoint pens. Although the felt-tip pen isn't certified for use with the Model 100 scanner, you didn't test quick-drying felt-tip pens and instead chose a ballpoint pen which itself isn't certified. So did the Summit board (both choosing the same Preventa counter pen with chair attached from a vendor as yet unidentified). This despite the fact that knowledgeable observers point out that if anything the Model 100 would be more not less amenable to scanning well with a felt-tip pen compared to an infra-red scanner. I know this only from brief but intensive research into the matter, and I would stand corrected if contradicted. But my larger concern was the possibility of delays on election day in two key counties, Summit and Cuyahoga, using the Model 100 scanner in the polls. I realize it may be too late to address the pen issue, other than by making sure there are adequate numbers of additional pens, not attached to tethers, for those voters who wish to cast their ballot outside the provided booths, should lines at the booths arise. After the election, we will need a study to ascertain if there was an correlation between polling places with longer lines and those with more incomplete ballots by voters feeling that they couldn't complete the ballot because doing so would hold up other voters.
Following this brief "pen advocacy," I followed up with advocacy calling for a more vigorous effort to promote early voting via more public service announcements, and not just via mail-in ballots but also with in-person voting. I had said my piece and really didn't plan to continue to write you.
However, the following article has now been brought to my attention. Can I assume you are also aware that Ohio is now once again under the spotlight for possible election day problems?
See: http://www.alternet.org/election08/103798/?page=entire
It states re: Ohio:
“The allocation of poll workers in the six Ohio counties -- Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, Montgomery, and Summit -- reviewed in this report is troubling. Our findings suggest that the number of poll workers will be inadequate to handle the expected turnout of voters in the upcoming November election. Moreover, the allocation of poll workers is not equitable across precincts, which will result in some communities receiving less assistance at the polls than others.
For example, using estimated turnout under Scenario One, the ratio of voters to poll workers ranges widely in many counties, including from 28 to 407 for Franklin County. Using estimated turnout under Scenario Three, the ranges are even wider, such as 0 to 404 for Cuyahoga County.
Moreover, there are racial disparities evident in the allocation of poll workers in some other counties. For example:
* In Franklin County, OH, there were 11% more voters per poll worker in high minority precincts (greater than 75%) than in low minority precincts (less than 25%).
* In Cuyahoga County, OH, there were 11% more voters per poll worker in high minority precincts (greater than 75%) than in low minority precincts (less than 25%).
Though voting machine and privacy booth allocations have not been released in most of the Ohio counties, there is already reason for concern. For example, if Lucas County allocates its machines as it did in the 2008 Primary (and it appears not to have added any machines), the number of voters per machine under our most conservative turnout estimate would range from 40 to 241, indicating that voters will likely encounter widely varying access to resources unless there is a re-allocation prior to the November 2008 election.
Furthermore, a report on machine allocation for the 2008 General Election prepared for the Franklin County Board of Elections by industrial and systems engineers from Ohio State University indicated that, even with the addition of machines, the wait times in many precincts could exceed three hours. They also stressed that if appropriate steps were not taken, the waiting lines will likely affect African-Americans more than other voters.”
END
Yet, last weekend, Secretary Bruner went on national TV via the Rachel Maddow show and repeated the same assurances I heard her give at the City Club earlier, namely that things would go smoothly on election day. Perhaps she knows of arrangements which contradict the above data, such as what she said below about two lines.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27245765#27245765
Basically, she did a good job talking about a "victory for Ohio voters" in the Ohio Supreme Court. She said that the lower court decision could have "clogged the voting places on elect day causing chaos and confusion and just what we didn't want to happen in Ohio in 2008." She agreed that unfortunately the litigation was a partisan war on the part of the Republicans, but did a good job coming across as nonpartisan herself.
Rachel quoted McCain's spokesperson claiming she was a partisan villain, and Jennifer responded: "My first concern is for the voters of this state....But Ohio is going to do a good job in its election this year and I'm going to see that that happens."
Then Rachel serves up a perfect opportunity for the Secretary to call for early voting, saying: "If you have any encouraging words for them in case they are going to be facing long lines or essentially a long day or a difficult day at the polls given that you are expecting I think 80% voter turnout."
She responds: "We have done a lot of preparation with our Boards of Elections in our counties, and in our counties and there are 53 of them that are using touch screen machines they can request a paper ballot and they can vote it, it will be counted election night, and they will have the opportunity in most of the polling places to go in one of two lines so we think that will move the lines much more quickly. We've been planning, we've been using common sense, and we've provided training that is consistent across the state of Ohio, so we think that voters will be confident this year."
However, I remain concerned that despite everything that has been happening apparently including disturbing indications of efforts to interfere with the operation of her office, that it is still important for the SOS and the BOEs in Cuyahoga and Summit to take additional extra steps to ensure that there are no undue delays at the polls and that there are no disparities between polling places, especially those that are consistent with unequal access for African-American voters.
Michael
Michael A. Dover, MSW, Ph.D.
Concerned Democrats
Tower Press Building
1900 Superior Ave. #221
Cleveland OH 44114
Phone: (734)645-6261
Fax: (734)661-5270
Email: mdover@concerneddemocrats.org
Website: http://concerneddemocrats.org