Buckeye State Blog - SOS telling poll workers one thing, voters another? - Comments

Stull waitin"

scurrvydog — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:45:57 -0700

I also left a message

Submitted by scurrvydog on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 4:06pm.

with a " Sheri" at the SoS's office, who I was told was in charge of poll worker training, about this Tues. I'm still waiting for a response. In our powerpoint training program for Montgomery County BOE pg 17 is this- under processing voters- "NO Discussions or criticisms about voting systems.-No thoughts, opinions, editorials, etc."

Point of Order, This calls for a clarification

Rant — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:30:41 -0700

Check it: I called the SOS office and found out they issued a directive (it is posted on their website) that explains that any voter may request a paper ballot, however, this would apply to DRE (touch screen) counties only. Cuyahoga County is an optical scan county so voters automatically receive a paper ballot. We're talkin' 'bout apples and oranges here people since there are DRE counties and optical scan counties in Ohio. So, all voters that wish to vote a paper ballot in a DRE COUNTY would need to request one. I was also told that Secretary Brunner created and sent posters to all DRE county boards to post at each polling location, which inform voters that they may request a paper ballot. A simple call to the SOS office would have clarified this.

White woman speaks with forked tongue...

Johnny Springfield — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:26:37 -0700

This paper ballot case is a perfect example of why Jennifer Brunner's a fraud. Based on the findings of her $1.9 million dollar study of Ohio voting systems, that anyone who's voted in Ohio since 2005 could have told her for the price of a combo meal at Wendys', she flipped out and ordered Cuyahoga to ditch it's DRE's and go to optical scan at warp speed. If Brunner was really so concerned that touch-screens are as vulnerable as she says they are, why didn't she decertify them, showing the same balls that the California SOS showed when she made that decision. But her real Achilles Heel in this little game of "ask if you know to ask" but "I'm not going to tell you to ask" is that she's made absolutely no statewide effort, as her office is charged to do, to mount any kind of public education program about the availability of paper ballots at each of Ohio's 57 counties that will use touch screens. How forked tongue is that? The sky is falling, the sky is falling; just don't look up. Brunner ought to be outted by the media, especially the major MSM's that endorsed her in 2006, for saying one thing and doing another. They, and all Ohioans, got sold a bill of goods. The truth behind her silly self-serving robo-defense statements of restoring confidence in voting again in Ohio is that she's done just the opposite. Please bow your heads and pray.

Not in Cuyahoga County . . .

Mr. Common Sense — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:54:00 -0700

. . . Cuyahoga County is utilizing ONLY paper ballots. There is no touch screen voting in Cuyahoga County. Sec. Brunner mandated this change in Cuyahoga County, but I don't believe that every other county in the state was required to make the same transition from touch screen to paper ballots, at least by the March 4th primary. It is possible that the SOS instructions are generally meant to be for all of the counties in Ohio, but it probably would have been more helpful for them to have included instructions specific to Cuyahoga County where there is no option between touch screen and paper ballots.

Where have YOU been?

Tom Smith — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:49:55 -0700

In Cuyahoga County, Brunner ordered the county to go to all paper ballots. In other counties that use touch screens, such as Lake County, people may request paper ballots. Counties that never used touch screen machines, such as Summit County, will still use all paper ballots.

SOS telling poll workers one thing, voters another?

Tim Russo — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:27:18 -0700

Huge thanks to scurrvydog for this comment. It appears that the SOS training for poll workers is saying one thing, and instructions going out to voters by mail are saying another. Here's what the pollworker training says.

NOTE: DO NOT OFFER voters a choice of touch screen or paper ballot; a VOTER MUST REQUEST the paper ballot in order to receive one.

And here's what the instructions sent to me by Cuyahoga County BOE last week say.

Jennifer Brunner - what gives? Do voters have to request a paper ballot?