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October 20, 2004
Punch Cards for Ohio
Despite the questions that have dogged the voting system since Florida 2000, the great majority of Ohio's voters will use punch cards in Tuesday's primary election.
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Early plans to do away with punch cards in time for the primary were stymied by concerns about their potential replacements, direct-recording electronic (DRE) computerized voting systems. Questions about the machines' security led both Democratic and Republican state legislators to try to block changes to the state's voting systems. While Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell continues to advocate the use of computerized voting systems, the legislature is considering a bill that would require voter- verified paper audit trails with paperless electronic voting systems.
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Changes to elections have been made nationwide in the wake of the passage of the Help America Vote Act. The bill's central component, a $3.86 billion authorization to states to pay for new voting machines, voter registration databases and other election needs, is accompanied by federal election mandates.
That includes: provisional voting ballots for voters who believe they are registered but whose names are not on registration rolls; voter identification requirements for first- time voters who register by mail and do not include verification with their registration applications; and new machine standards and/or voter education programs to reduce spoiled or uncountable ballots.
"For many in Ohio, this could be the last time they vote on punch cards, though I imagine some might be surprised they are still doing so considering all of the attention that has been given to the problems found with that system," said Dan Seligson, editor of electionline.org and co-author of the report. "
"Ohio was already sued once because of its use of punch card machines in the 2000 election," added Tova Wang, senior program officer and democracy fellow at The Century Foundation and co- author of the report. "Moreover, some jurisdictions in Ohio are using punch cards while others are using more accurate technology. Will that lead to the kind of lawsuit filed in California during the 2003 recall election, alleging a violation of the Equal Protection Clause?"
Posted by State at October 20, 2004 02:23 PM
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