Ohio Voter Suppression News

Franklin Co. may have the most screwed up BOE, but the folks at the Summit Co. BOE have some leadership problems, too, according the Beacon Journal:

Since the 2000 presidential election, the Summit County Board of Elections has eliminated 149 of its precincts - more than any other Ohio county.

Why did Summit get rid of so many precincts -- nearly a quarter of the 624 it had in 2000?

Although the two Democrats on the board remember it differently, the answer given by Republicans, when the decision was made three years ago, was simple: to save money by reducing the need for increasingly hard-to-find poll workers.

The Republicans say they were betting that precincts could be consolidated without inconveniencing voters, thanks to more efficient electronic-voting machines that were expected to replace punch-card machines before this year's presidential election.

That gamble was lost when the statewide switchover in voting methods stalled amid fears that the new machines needed more safeguards against vote tampering.

The Democrats on the Board need to go, too when they display this kind of "understanding":

But both [Democratic board members Wayne Jones and Russell Pry] said they understood that the county had no choice but to reduce precincts. "We were under a mandate from the secretary of state to consolidate,'' Pry said.

But that's not true, said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. "There's no requirement for reductions.'' Ohio law states only that precincts should have fewer than 1,400 registered voters.