Brunner: All Ohio Voting Systems Have Critical Security Failures

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) will hold a press conference today at 11:00 am to announce the results of her $1.9 million examination of voting systems in use in the state. [UPDATE: The full report (pdf) and a summary of the report are on the Secretary of State web site.] From the Dispatch, a preview:

All of the voting systems used in Ohio have "critical security failures" that make them vulnerable to tampering and unreliable, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner concluded after a thorough review of the systems.

The findings apply both to the electronic touch-screen machines used in 58 of Ohio's 88 counties, as well as the optical-count paper ballot systems used in the others.

The $1.9 million testing found risks ranging from minor to severe and concluded that while higher levels of sophistication were needed in some cases to tamper with vote results, "fairly simple techniques" sometimes could be used. ...

Brunner made a series of recommendations to Gov. Ted Strickland and the legislature for improving the security of the voting systems but stopped short of decertifying the machines or calling for replacements.

It may be too late to make major changes immediately with the March 4 primaries looming, but Brunner made it clear she thinks state voting needs to be overhauled before the eyes of the world once again are expected to be on Ohio for the fall presidential election.

Cuyahoga County appears to be in line for more immediate and drastic measures:

Brunner made a separate recommendation for Cuyahoga County, the state's largest, saying state funding may be available to replace the touch-screens used there with optical-scan units for the March primary at a cost of up to $2.5 million.

Here is a summary of her recommendations to the governor and legislature for stateside action, with my reactions in italics:

* Moving to central counting of ballots at boards of elections or other locations.

* Eliminating direct recording electronic and precinct-based optical scan voting machines that tabulate votes at polling locations [This one and the following seem like common sense and relatively easy steps that area badly needed - there is way too much risk of tampering or incompetence when the counting goes on at thousands of small locations.].

* Utilizing the AutoMark voting machine for voters with disabilities (allows those voters to mark ballots with little or no assistance, preserving the secrecy of their ballot selections.)

* Requiring all ballots be optical scan ballots for central tabulation and effective voter verification [If I understand this, it is huge! A real paper trail - hooray!].

* Maintaining "no fault" absentee voting while establishing early (15 days prior to the election) and Election Day Vote Centers (of the size of 5 to 10 precincts), eliminating voting at individual precincts or polling places of less than 5 precincts [Not sure I understand this. Early in-person voting sounds like a good idea, but you can already do that by doing your absentee votinga at the BOE. The latter part seems to be about consolidating voting into larger locations, perhaps a good change although inconvenient for some voters.].

* Requiring all special elections (issues only) held in August 2008 to be voted by mail (no in-person voting, except at the board of elections, for issue-only elections held in August 2008). [Wow! The people who rely on issue elections aren't going to like this. However, mail-only voting works great in Oregon, by all reports.]

She isn't going all the way to decertifying any machines, but the recommendations seem to require optical scan ballot counting. There is a lot here that needs further explanation, but it looks like a fairly dramatic agenda, and I'm sure it will draw immense opposition. Voting rights advocates will find things to cheer at points where they want more.