Reply #4: OH: Elections boss backs off counting plan [View All]

[EFerrari]

Elections boss backs off counting plan

COLUMBUS (AP) - Changes are planned for Ohio voting procedures in the presidential election this November, but requiring precincts to send ballots to central locations before tallying them won't be one of them, Ohio's chief elections officer said Friday.

The boards will have enough on their hands in a statewide switch from touch-screen machines to machines that electronically scan paper ballots cast by voters, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said.

Currently, 57 of the state's 88 counties use electronic touch screens to record votes, but Brunner said an independent study released last month found the touch-screen systems could be more susceptible to tampering. She wants the switch to the optical-scan systems by November in a state that was crucial in President Bush's victory over Democrat John Kerry in 2004.

Making a second change this year — from counting votes at each precinct site to tallying several precincts' ballots at central locations — could put too much of a burden on local elections officials already coping with other changes, Brunner told a statewide meeting of those officials on Thursday.

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080119/UPDATES01/301190010