Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Contenders trying to restore faith in Ohio election process
By Stephanie Hummel
The Post (Ohio U.)
11/01/2006

(U-WIRE) ATHENS, Ohio — The 2006 secretary of state candidates are focused on changing the voting process after the problems of the 2004 presidential election and on clearing up the language of the recently passed voter identification bill.

The secretary of state holds the most important office in Ohio's government as the chief business and elections officer, said Republican candidate Greg Hartmann, the Hamilton County clerk of courts.

Ohio suffered a "black eye" with the 2004 presidential election, which lost the trust of the state's voters, Hartmann said.

In an effort to restore faith in Ohio's voting system, Hartmann plans on creating a directing position for the Board of Voting Machine Examiners, to be responsible for overseeing the testing of voting machines.

"We have to reconfirm to the voters of Ohio that we have a good system that works well," he said.

Hartmann wants to help create "voters for life" by providing college students with one hour of college credit for working the polls.

His opponent, Democrat Jennifer Brunner of Columbus, hopes to improve the election process by decreasing poll worker shifts from 14 hours to eight.

Brunner, who has worked as legislative counsel to the secretary of state and practiced election law, said she also is concerned with the effect the recently passed voter identification bill will have on college students because some students don't have the required forms of identification.

Hartmann said the language of the bill needs to be clarified for voters.

"I generally support common sense safeguards for the right to vote, (but) it's too complicated," Hartmann said.

After viewing the problems of the 2004 presidential election as one of the coordinators of its recount, Green Party candidate Tim Kettler of Warsaw also wants election reform through re-examining the contracts of voting equipment providers.

"What we know from the recount of 2004 and other auditing is that we have a mountain of evidence of wrongdoing on the part of election officials in Ohio," Kettler said. "We should be working to make our elections perfect."

Independent candidate John Eastman, a Centerville, Ohio, resident and environmental engineer who associates with the Natural Law Party of Ohio, could not be reached for comment.

[ Back to Student Voices ]