Taxpayers Association blasts voter PR campaign
Tony Goins
Business First

The Ohio Taxpayers Association on Thursday called the secretary of state's campaign to educate Ohioans about new voting machines a "total waste of time and money."
 

The state public relations campaign will cost about $15.3 million and will include television commercials, focus groups and direct mailings. The association said the money would be better spent training local election officials and raising their pay, but the state doesn't have much choice in the matter, said Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

The federal government requires Ohio to conduct a voter education campaign as part of the Help America Vote Act, a grant program that is paying for new voting machines, LoParo said.

Blackwell plans a comprehensive approach using the Burson-Marsteller public relations agency, a national firm that conducted campaigns for the 2000 census and the new $20 bill. It will include focus groups and outreach efforts to groups such the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and other community and minority groups.

"All of the work (of getting new machines) will be wasted if the voters don't have confidence in the voting machines," LoParo said.

The association also criticized Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state, for appearing in the ads.

"Everyone knows that this proposal has everything to do with positioning Ken Blackwell (to run for) governor, and little to do with voter education," Scott Pullins, chairman of the association, said in a press release.

LoParo dismissed those concerns, saying the secretary of state is Ohio's top elections officer.

"I don't know who else would kick off the campaign," LoParo said.