Cuyahoga Board of Elections gets secretary of state's OK to reprint paper records for recounts
Brunner OKs move during recounts
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Joe Guillen
Plain Dealer Reporter

The state's top elections official has cleared away a potential trouble spot, just in time for a week of recounts at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner gave the board permission to reprint paper records of votes if the printouts made on Election Day are unreadable during a recount - a problem the board has encountered twice this year.

"The goal here is to ensure that every vote is counted," Brunner said. "We don't ever want a situation where the technology impedes the ability to get the will of the people."
 

With four recounts scheduled in Cuyahoga County this week, Brunner's solution is timely.

"I'm just glad she gave us the advice beforehand," board member Rob Frost said.

Unreadable ballot printouts caused by paper jams marred two recounts at the board earlier this year, and elections officials worried about conducting a recount if too many ballot printouts are unreadable.

Brunner said board members ultimately will decide whether to reprint votes. They could reprint from memory cards, which record votes from inside touch-screen machines during elections, or from the machines' internal flash memory.

The board asked Brunner for guidance because Ohio law doesn't specify how to reproduce a touch-screen machine's ballot printout, which resembles cash register tape and is visible to voters so they can make sure the machine recorded their votes correctly.

Board of Elections Director Jane Platten said the county now has a clear path to follow if the paper trail is unreadable in a recount.

"Voters now have a fair opportunity to have their votes counted consistently throughout the whole election process, including election night, the official count and the recount process," Platten said Monday in an e-mail.

If the votes are printed out a second time for a recount, many voters won't see their ballot printed, as they do on Election Day. But Brunner said that's more acceptable than losing votes.

"When I'm faced with the situation where counting the actual ballot may result in not counting all the votes, I think the public would prefer me to err on the side of counting all the votes," she said.

This week, the board must recount four races from the Nov. 6 election because the margin of victory was one-half of 1 percent or less. The races are: a Bedford Heights Charter Review Commission seat; North Royalton council Ward 6; Olmsted Falls Council at-large; and a Solon school board seat. A fifth automatic recount involving a seat on the Strongsville Board of Education is possible, but the board is awaiting certified results from Lorain County. Part of the school district lies in Lorain County.