Ohio: Election Integrity Estimate

[liam_laddie]

First: many, many thanks to DUer's mod mom, sfexpat2000, Peace Patriot, Patsy Stone, Land Shark, kster, kpete, BradBlog, vickiss, livvy, Melissa G, Wilms...and J30 Coalition members mjcreech, rady ananda and others...all of you have provided input, advice and inspiration to keep at this festering sore which HAVA has inflicted on us. If I've missed anyone, please forgive the oversight. I'll try to add items to this topic thread along the way, both pre- and post-March 4. This will include newspaper links and significant websites and blogs.

Overview for the non-Buckeyes out there...
Ohio has about 11,465,000 residents, about 250,000 less than the combined populations of WA, OR and ID. There are several major urban areas: Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Canton, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati. Ohio currently has 20 electoral votes, probably 18 after the 2010 census. It's fairly evenly split party-wise, with a purplish-blue trend, definitely a swing state.
The Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner (D), is the ranking election official.
Web site <www.state.oh.us/sos> Phone: [phone] in Columbus, the state capital.

Election schedule:
March 4 - Primary
August 5 - Special elections, local issues and races
October 6 - deadline for registration to vote on Nov 4
November 4 - the big day
November 14 - out-of-country civilian and armed services absentee ballots, signed and postmarked
by Nov. 4, are due at county BoE's, to be counted.
November 15 - official canvass of ballots may begin; must begin by Nov 19
November 25 - official canvass of ballots must be completed

Voting Systems by County
See <www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/info/EverestMAP.pdf> This is an easy-to-read, color-coded map of the state with a key to the type and brand of voting machines used. There are 11,115 precincts in the State. (FYI, the USA has a total of somewhere north of 180,000 precincts.)

There are (88) counties; voting systems as follows:
(47) use Premier (ex-Diebold) Accuvote-TSX DRE for both regular and ADA voters
(28) use ES&S Model 100 DRE for regular, ES&S Automark for ADA voters
(10) use ES&S iVotronic DRE for both voter requirements
(2) use Hart Intercivic eScan op-scan for regular, eSlate DRE for ADA voters
(1) uses Premier Accuvote opscan for regular, Accuvote TSX for ADA voters

A terrific research project was done by The Ohio Election Justice Campaign; Jennifer Alexander (Principal Researcher) and Paddy Shaffer (Director) on Ohio county BoE's, equipment, contact data and so forth. Each county's information is included in a well laid out format.
OEJC home page: <http://www.wakeupandsaveyourcountry.com/oejc.html > The report on the counties was posted Feb 10 on OpEdNews <http://tinyurl.com/2mfqrb > It's a 16 pg. PDF; here're two sample entries:
================
ADAMS COUNTY
215 North Cross St., Room 103
West Union, OH 45693
Office Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
(Monday thru Friday)
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
NO WEB SITE
================
ALLEN COUNTY
204 N. Main St.
Lima, OH 45801
Office Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
(Monday thru Friday)
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Web site: www.allencountyohio.com/boa.php
absentee SOS FORM #11A PDF;
director, deputy, board members listed without contact info or party ID;
no poll worker info; no board meeting info; no public records info; general email contact
================
OEJC rated the counties' websites; several were recognized for content, organization and ease-of-use. Cuyahoga, rated tops (Cleveland,) Fairfield (Lancaster,) Franklin (Columbus,) Hamilton (Cincinnati,) and Warren (Lebanon) are in the first rank, followed by Ottawa (Troy), Trumbull (Warren,) and Tuscarawas (New Philadelphia.) Love those native American names! Twenty-eight counties, many rural, have NO website as of Feb 6, 2008. OEJC also pointed out problems and missing or erroneous information whenever appropriate.

What's being voted on
(Note, I did not research national candidates other than D & R)
In Ohio, party affiliation is established only by voting in party primaries. Many primary voters vote an issues-only ballot; their party affiliation is listed as "unknown" or "independent" on the voter lists.
On March 4 voters will decide: D & R primaries for Presidential. No US Senate race this year; George Voinovich(R) is up in 2010, Sherrod Brown(D) in 2012. All (18) US House Reps are up. The OH contingent is now (11)R,(7)D. There are party primaries in (11) Districts: OH-2, both D & R; -3, D only; -5 R only; -7 both D & R; -10 both D & R; -12 both D & R; -13 R only; -14 D(?); -15 R only; -16 both D & R; -18 both D & R. Corrections appreciated.
In State races, Senators in even-numbered districts are up, (16) of (33). All (99) House Reps are up. Most county elected officials are up, as are many judges and members of state and county central committees of political parties.

Current status of problem areas
As many know, previous SoS J. Kenneth Blackwell (soundly defeated in a run for governor in 2006) left the SoS office in, can we say, disarray? Brunner has done a lot in the time she's been in office to straighten out his mess. There are many loose ends being addressed as staff and budget allow. The most noted is probably Project Everest, an examination of electronic systems and what can be done to fix the many problems with these proprietary, secretly programmed systems.

The issue of Cuyahoga County's voting problems has received much press, including Brunner's firing of the Board. She recently fired the head of Summit County's BoE. A few counties protested her directive to provide paper ballots at ALL polling places, if a voter requests one; I believe this is also to generate an auditable record.
Three counties will use central scanning, one of Brunner's controversial proposals and which was lifted except in these three: Cuyahoga, Van Wert and Mercer. These BoE's will be able to collect (between noon and 3 pm) and scan ballots, but not tabulate, before close of polls. Central scanning will be prohibited after May 1, 2008.

Current integrity estimate? Maybe a 1.5-2 (on a 0-5 scale.) So much depends on the training, honesty and dedication of the 45,000 or so pollworkers (I'm one of them), the chain of custody, the transparency and behavior of county officials, that more than a gut-level guess is, IMHO, not feasible.
- To Be Continued -

[Melissa G]

1. Thanks for all the great work, liam_laddie! K&R! n/t

[mod mom]

2. Moritz School of Law-5 Things to Keep your Eye On:

Administering the March 4 Primary in Ohio


February 19, 2008
?Edward B. Foley
Director, Election Law @ Moritz
Robert M. Duncan/Jones Day Designated Professor of Law
Moritz College of Law


It is widely believed that Ohio’s primary on March 4 will play a pivotal role in determining the Democratic candidate for President. If Obama wins the statewide popular vote, the pundits proclaim, his victory likely would propel him to similar success in Pennsylvania (on April 22), and the party’s “superdelegates”—who by all accounts will control the outcome of the party’s national convention in Denver—will fall in line. Conversely, if Clinton prevails in the Ohio primary’s popular vote, then she would be expected to do the same in Pennsylvania, and these two victories in states that will be major battlegrounds in the general election campaign will cause the superdelegates to favor her.

Consequently, the conduct of Ohio’s election officials in administering the primary vote is now important, not only as a “test run” of technologies and procedures to be used again in November, but also in its own right. While it is the prerogative of the Democratic Party to make what use of the Ohio primary vote as it wishes—including any significance the superdelegates may find in the results about the electability of these two candidates in the fall—it remains the responsibility of the state’s election officials to manage the casting and counting of primary ballots properly, so that its results are accurate.

Whether we care about the performance of Ohio’s election system for one or both of these reasons, what should we look for on March 4 to evaluate whether or not it worked satisfactorily?

Here are five things to keep an eye on. While this short list is inevitably incomplete—indeed, one important truth about election administration is the need to maintain flexibility given the good chance that something unexpected will occur—this is a reasonable set of priorities as we come within two weeks of the primary date.

-snip
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/articles.php?ID=329

5 areas to watch in detail at link:



1. Cuyahoga County.

2. Disenfranchisement through Under-Capacity

3. Polling Place Confusion and Inequalities

4. High Rates of Provisional Voting

5. Irregularities in Absentee Voting


THANKS LIAM-EXCELLENT JOB! I POSTED THIS RECENTLY BUT HOPE IT GETS ATTENTION!

[rumpel]

3. great work!

k&r

[livvy]

4. Thanks, Liam. Ohio should be "interesting", hopefully in a better way than in the past. n/t

[EFerrari]

5. Thank you, Liam, for your work.

[liam_laddie]

6. Thursday additions

This is the website of the Ohio Democratic Party; there are some good links and you can subscribe to the e-mailed "Daily Clips" which is a compilation of stories from around the state
related to politics and some elections news.
<http://www.ohiodems.org/site/c.mhLRKZPCLmF/b.3630699/k.BFE2/Home.htm>

Links to newspapers -
Cleveland Plain-Dealer <http://www.cleveland.com>
Akron Beacon-Journal <http://www.ohio.com>
Cincinnati Enquirer <http://news.emquirer.com>
Columbus Dispatch <http://www.columbusdispatc.com>
Toledo Blade <http://www.toledoblade.com>
Dayton Daily News <http://www.daytondailynews.com>
Youngstown Vindicator <http://vindy.com>
Canton Repository <http://www.cantonrep.com>
Alliance Review <www.the-review.com/>

Links to general election topics for Ohio -
<http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2008/2974>
Worth reading."Bob & Harvey's 3-Step "Ohio Plan" for fair & reliable voting & vote counts.

<http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/ElectionsVoter/directives/2007/Dir2007-30.pdf>
A directive from SoS Brunner regarding recounts which has caused some concerns among activists.

<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/J30/>
The J30 Coalition was founded on Jan. 30, 2005 in response to the election problems of Nov 2004. It has about 65 members, most mid-west based, and is a good resource for election reform activists. To join the group, you must first register with yahoo groups.

<http://innovation.cq.com/primaries>
Congressional Quarterly's site for primary information. Excellent source for all states. Here's
an entry for Ohio (thanks to mod mom)Primary
Open to Democrats and independents
2008-03-04
Earlier primary? No
161 delegates

141 pledged, 20 unpledged. Of the 141 pledged: 92 are district-level delegates who will be selected at a pre-primary caucus Jan. 3, 2008 and then certified by Ohio Democratic Party to DNC Secretary within three days after their election is certified by the Secretary of State in early April; 18 pledged PLEOs will be selected at the State Executive Committee meeting on May 10, 2008; and 31 at-large delegates who will be selected by the state executive committee on May 10.Of the 20 unpledged: 10 are DNC members, 7 are Dem members of Congress, 1 is Dem Gov. Ted Strickland; they will be confirmed by DNC Secretary to Ohio Dem Party by March 1, 2008. The 2 remaining unpledged delegates are add-ons who will be selected May 10, 2008 by the state Democratic executive committee after being nominated by the state chair.

[liam_laddie]

7. Thursday addition II

Hmmm...a computer hiccup omitted this. <http://www.politics1.com/oh.htm> There's all kind of candidate info. At the bottom of the page, there are links to print, radio, TV media and Ohio-related BLOGS! Site covers all states, very useful.

[liam_laddie]

8. USAToday article 28 Feb, Cuyahoga

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022908H.shtml - or - http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-02-28-votinginside_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

This was posted by babylonsister in another thread, and I thought it useful to post here as it's about Cuyahoga County. IMO, very well done report. Please note the central section under "Sound simple? It's not." Especially regarding the sheer number of different ballot forms needed in this one large county - 4,317 - to deal with all the candidates w/name rotation, issues, jurisdictions. THIS is why I think HCPB at precinct are feasible only for President and US Senate, and probably statewide races (OH Supreme Court?) or issues that apply across the entire state. All other ballot forms will be far too complex for hand-counting at the precinct. This has been discussed quite a bit over the last couple years, but I've seen no cogent arguments for hand-counting the entire ballot. Others and I proposed either two ballots or a perfed, tear-off section for Prez plus statewide races and issues.

[liam_laddie]

9. Some historical links

Some newbies may not be aware of these two resources; they've been invaluable in my education re: voting history, systems, general overview. Worth browsing, if you have the time...

http://www.chuckherrin.com/archive.htm
Chuck Herrin is one of the IT people who got into the evils of electronic voting systems quite early. Seems he hasn't updated this particular topic in a while, but it's all worth reviewing for general knowledge. And fun to read!

http://www.chuckherrin.com/archive.htm
Prof. Doug Jones is active in the election integrity arena, His website is a trove of great links, especially his "Tutorials," "Web Sites" links to Gov't. & NGO's, "Voting Machine and and Voting Software Vendors" and "Academia."

[liam_laddie]

10. Australian open-source system

This is how they do it in Oz. Plus there's a financial incentive to vote. They have compulsory voting; there's a fine of $20-70 if you don't vote, usually added to a tax-due notice. A decent link is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_electoral_system

This is a link to the company who developed the software. Why didn't USA just buy good, off-the-shelf-and-continuously-refined software? I suspect the NIH syndrome, plus greasing of politicians' palms (or other anatomical zones.) Did I write that? Seems I did indeed...sigh...terminal cynicism...well, after all, Bob Ney and Tom DeLay were involved...
http://www.softimp.com.au/evacs/index.html

They get about 95% turnout and they have instant-runoff voting. This is for national, Parliamentary races. The states have variations of the national system, SFAIK. Wonder if they're accepting immigrants from 'Murrica?

[liam_laddie]

11. Some excerpts from the J30 Coalition's daily digest

J30 is a yahoo group and does incredible work, especially in Ohio. I urge anyone who is interested in the subject to apply to the group for membership; from their homepage:
Notice! Due to an ever increasing amount of member requests being generated by maleware, we are only accepting members who include some brief biographical data or reasons for their interest in membership along with their membership request. Alternately, you may have a referral from an existing member communicated to a group moderator along with the email address you will use for the membership. Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.

Following are some selected posts from the last couple days. In the interest of privacy, posters' contact info is omitted.
==================
Franklin County Board of Elections Shake-up to precede primary
Saturday, March 1, 2008 8:14 AM By Barbara Carmen THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A deal is in the works to change leaders at theFranklin County Board of Elections, just days before the presidential primary draws scrutiny to Ohio.

The board will meet at 1 p.m. Sunday to swap its director and deputy director and name a new chairman. The move follows rumors that Director Matthew Damschroder would be booted, both because he is bloodied by battles with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and because he is a Republican and political control has shifted to Democrats.

The changes are intended to allay Brunner's concerns. She is responsible for Ohio's elections and has a laundry list of grievances against Damschroder, including what she sees as sloppy voting safeguards and his efforts to torpedo her reforms.
- snip -
Damschroder, a Republican, will move to deputy director. Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party, is expected to be voted in as chairman of the elections board, which he joined just last week. Ohio law requires bipartisan oversight of elections boards; a single party may not control both the chairman and director.
- snip -
Anthony said he'd counseled Damschroder to lie low after e-mails became public showing he was working against Brunner's decision to return to paper ballots because of concerns over the electronic machines' security and accuracy.
- snip -
The Democrat has removed three Republican electionsboard members statewide in recent weeks for various reasons. She also fired Republican Allen County Director Keith Cunningham from the state Board of Voting Machine Examiners, which certifies new voting equipment, because he said he would refuse to decertify touch screens if necessary.
- snip -
Brunner declined to reappoint Alex Arshinkoff in Summit County, who also is chairman of the county GOP, as well as James L. Crates in Hardin County and Mary M. Wipert in Lawrence County. "I've got to ensure that our elections are operated with professionalism and integrity," Brunner said. "If it means I have to not reappoint someone who's causing a lot of strife and difficulty in the operation of the board, then so be it."
=============
*Elections spending called bad deal *
*Ohio secretary of state says voting-machine purchases poorly done *
Published on Thursday, Feb 28, 2008 By Connie Bloom Akron Beacon-Journal staff writer

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner stopped by the Akron Summit County Public Library Wednesday to talk with voters about Ohio's voting systems to boost confidence in the March 4 primary. The meeting was attended by 40 people.

It was the third stop in a series of four Town Hall Meetings in the area, prompted by the results of a comprehensive ''EVEREST'' report released in December that said crucial security failures in the state's three computer-based voting systems could affect the integrity of Ohio's elections.

In January, Brunner, a Democrat, issued a directive to election officials in 55 counties, including Stark, Medina, Portage and Wayne, that paper ballots be available in the March 4 primary. Summit County already uses optical scan paper ballots.

The paper ballots will still be counted by tabulators and scanners, said Adele Eisner of Cleveland Heights, who called herself an election integrity activist. These machines are still ''grossly substandard'' and become even more vulnerable when managed by vendors, she said.

"I don't think we got what we paid for," said Brunner, when Ohio spent $100 million to upgrade voting equipment. She said she will make a series of proposals to the Ohio legislature that could be implemented in November to mitigate some of the numerous issues, but warned that legislature could make "sausage" of them.

Among them is the elimination of DREs (direct recording electronics or touch screens) because of their inherent vulnerabilities, additional auditing procedures for accuracy, the testing and certifying of electronic poll books and the continuation of no-fault absentee voting.

She also will propose a pilot program for multiple precinct polling places, called MP3s, that would extend the voting period by 15 days and accommodate about 7,000 at each location, at places like malls and community centers.
=================
From http://www.electionline.org/
After Tuesday, the focus of the secretary of state's office will almost immediately shift to November's election which is just eight months away.

Brunner hopes to eliminate all DREs - except possibly for voters with disabilities - by then. One proposal from her office would allow for precinct-based tabulation of ballots for an unofficial vote count while having the official count conducted on CCOS technology. These counts could then also be used for a rudimentary post-election audit. However, actually making this change by the general election will be a challenge, as there has already been resistance http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/us/politics/10ohio.html from some election officials and state legislators.
==================
http://www.progressohio.org/ is a good resource
==================
Franklin County Board of elections names new director
Sunday, March 2, 2008 5:56 PM By Jodi Andes
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

As expected, a new director of the Franklin County Board of Elections was named today, but the board stopped short of completely ousting the former chief. Two days before the state's primary election, Dennis L. White replaced Matthew Damschroder as elections-board director, in charge of daily operations. White, who was the deputy director, is a former state chairman of the Democratic Party. Damschroder is a Republican.
Board officials wanted Damschroder and White to swap positions so that Damschroder would become deputy director, but Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner balked at the idea, said County Republican Chairman Doug Preisse. Brunner and Damschroder have not gotten along.
Instead, the board voted to hire Damschroder as a consultant through the end of the year. His pay of $11,250 a month mirrors his pay as director. Preisse replaced William A. Anthony Jr., a Democrat, as board chairman.
The board also voted to extend absentee voting on Monday an extra four hours, to 9 p.m., because of heavy volume.

[EFerrari]

12. kick