Integrity, transparency of elections critical

Tuesday, 29 December 2009 09:02

JOHN CAREY, Ohio Senate

The heart of our democracy is the right to vote: the opportunity to elect our leaders, influence major policy issues and have a voice in the direction of this country, the state and our local communities. All Americans should be able to exercise this right as part of a fair and transparent process.

In the months leading up to the November 2008 General Election, however, the integrity of Ohio's voting system was shaken by reports of potentially-phony voter registrations and cases of voters casting more than one ballot. These stories raised concerns that our state's election laws were vulnerable to fraud and were creating confusion for voters and local election officials.

While it was overshadowed by the heated debate over how to fix an $851 million hole in the state's education budget, the Ohio Senate took an important step earlier this month to address these concerns and promote greater fairness and transparency in our state's election system. On Dec. 9, my colleagues and I approved Senate Bill 8, legislation that would make several reforms to Ohio's election procedures to streamline early-voting rules, facilitate the sharing of voter registration mismatches between the Ohio Secretary of State and county election officials and make it easier for the thousands of brave Ohioans who are serving our country overseas to have a voice in electing their leaders back home.

The primary tenets of SB 8 are modeled after legislation that the Senate passed last December but was vetoed by Governor Strickland. That bill was endorsed by the bipartisan Ohio Association of Election Officials.

SB 8 would eliminate a controversial and confusing five-day overlap between the start of early voting and the voter registration deadline, known as "Golden Week," which enabled unregistered voters to sign up and cast an absentee ballot in the same day. In-person absentee voting, which currently begins 35 days before an election, would instead start 20 days prior to Election Day. Absentee voting by mail would begin 28 days before the election.

However, to ease concerns about longer lines at the polls, SB 8 would authorize local boards of election to establish up to three, geographically-diverse, early voting locations within each county. These sites would have to be agreed to by a majority of the four members from each county elections board.

Also, in the interest of transparency, the bill would allow bipartisan observers to be present during in-person absentee voting. This provision codifies an earlier ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Looking to strengthen protections against voter fraud, SB 8 works to clarify current Ohio law by requiring that voters complete all five fields on their absentee ballot identification envelopes. This includes their name, address, date of birth, signature and either the last four digits of their Social Security number, driver's license number or a copy of one of several other forms of identification. However, the bill would direct boards of election to notify a voter by mail or telephone of any mistakes and give them an opportunity to correct it.

Last year, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive that required an absentee voter to only complete three of the five fields on their ballot envelope for the vote to be counted. Under this rule, the voter's address and date of birth were no longer required.

Further, SB 8 would direct the secretary and the registrar of motor vehicles to enter into an agreement to match information in the state's voter registration database with motor vehicle records, and then share any mismatches with county election officials. In the weeks leading up to Election Day in 2008, the secretary announced that thousands of new voters appeared to have driver's license numbers or Social Security Numbers that did not match the information they submitted on their voter registration forms.

However, when pressed to share this information with local boards of election, the secretary argued that relevant state laws did not authorize her to share mismatches in her office's voter registration database.

SB 8 was also amended during debate and discussion in the Senate State & Local Government & Veterans Affairs Committee to ensure Ohio is in compliance with the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, which is designed to help the men and women in our nation's armed forces and other overseas voters register to vote and have their absentee ballots cast and counted. For instance, SB 8 would allow military and overseas voters from Ohio to apply and return voter registrations electronically to the Secretary of State's office and absentee ballots for these voters would be available 45 days prior to Election Day.

The Ohio House also recently approved their own election reform bill, which includes many of the same provisions as SB 8. It is critical that we work together in the coming months to build off these shared goals, compromise on our differences and approve a bill that helps to strengthen the integrity of our elections system, improve voter confidence and give every Ohioan the opportunity to exercise their right to vote as part of a fair and transparent process.

I welcome your views on other state issues. If you have any questions, thoughts or concerns, or if you need assistance working with a state government agency, please write to me: Senator John A. Carey, Ohio Senate, Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio 43215 or call my office at (614) 466-8156. I also encourage you to visit my page on the new Ohio Senate Web site at www.ohiosenate.gov/john-carey.

Sen. John Carey, R-Wellston, represents Ohio's 17th Senate District.

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