Democratic voter anxiety focused on Ohio Secretary of State

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The revelations about voters being wrongly removed prompted a letter to Husted from Dr. Norman Robbins, the Director of Research at Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates and a professor emeritus at Case Western Reserve University. Robbins’ data on the 93,000 voters who voted during the final three days of early voting in 2008 was used by the Barack Obama campaign in its successful lawsuit to prevent Husted from slashing the number of early voting days.

In his November 1st letter, Robbins expressed concern about the failure of the state to notify potentially disenfranchised voters in a timely manner:

As I wrote you on Oct 30 and you well know, this is an extremely important matter, especially if the election is close. Even so, if the searches are not fairly exhaustive, a large number of voters who sent in absentee applications and were found as “not registered” will be definitely discouraged from voting. Unless they are informed of the mistake immediately, it will be too late to rectify this unintentional disenfranchisement after the election. In addition, as you note in your bulletin, the same care to find registered voters must be exerted with respect to provisional ballots.

Meanwhile on Thursday, a liberal independent newspaper revealed that Husted had allowed a private elections equipment vendor, ES&S, to install “untested, unverified” software packets on electronic vote tabulating systems in several counties, according to the Columbus Free Press, in what they say is a breach of Ohio law.

During the 2004 presidential election, the Free Press reported that election officials observed technicians from the ES&S voting machine company and Triad computer maintenance company installing uncertified and untested software patches on voting machines in 44 Ohio counties prior to the election. Software patches are usually installed to “update” or change existing software. These software patch updates were considered suspect by election protection activists, in light of all the voting machine anomalies found during the 2004 election in Ohio.

The Free Press has learned that Election Systems and Solutions (ES&S) installed the software patches that will affect 4,041,056 registered voters, including those in metropolitan Columbus and Cleveland (click here for spread sheet from verifiedvoting.org).

… The contract calls for ES & S technicians and county poll workers to “enter custom codes and interfaces” to the standard election reporting software just as was done with the controversial 2004 Ohio presidential election.

Last minute software patches may be deemed “experimental” because that designation does not require certification and testing. Uncertified and untested software for electronic voting systems are presumably illegal under Ohio law. All election systems hardware and software must be tested and certified by the state before being put into use, according to Ohio Revised Code 3506.05. By unilaterally deeming this new software “experimental,” Secretary of State Husted was able to have the software installed without any review, inspection or certification by anyone. ES & S, for their part, knows that this software will not be subject to the minimal legally required testing as stated in the contract on page 21 (Section 6.1).

Reached for comment by theGrio, Husted spokesman Matt McClellan said the software was not a “patch” at all, but rather a “reporting tool software to assist counties and to help them simplify the process by which they report the results to our system.”

McClellan said the tool serves to cut down on the amount of information precinct workers would have to key in by hand by allowing the results to be output onto a thumbdrive and uploaded at once into the Secretary of State’s system.

“It basically just creates a one-way flow of information — and that is simply from their system, out,” McClellan said. “So at no point in time are we going into their system and messing with anything.”

When asked why the reporting tool was labeled experimental, McClellan responded, “It is a pilot project that we’re doing with about 25 counties or so. So it’s not statewide, but it is a pilot project we’re trying.”

Whether or not that explanation is enough to satisfy worried Democrats, what is clear is that for many of them, Husted is viewed as a partisan, first and foremost. Neither Husted nor his spokesman responded to questions regarding Democrats’ perception of his running of the office of secretary of state.

“From working to curb early voting to pursuing unfair elections policies, Secretary Husted has helped sow this environment of frustration and mistrust among Ohio’s voters,” said Ohio State Sentor Nina Turner, who represents the Cleveland area. “As the state’s chief elections official, it is incumbent upon him to do the exact opposite.”

Unfortunately, even this close to November 6, there are still chinks in the armor. Were it not for the diligence of officials in Cuyahoga County, for instance, at least 865 voters would have been disenfranchised due to a computer glitch. The thought that even one voter could unjustly lose their rightful voice should cause us all to pause.”

Turner and other elected Democrats remain cautiously optimistic that the Ohio election will be trouble free, but the state and national parties aren’t taking chances. Hundreds of lawyers will descend on Ohio in the days leading up to the election, to observe what goes on at the polls and potentially assist voters who feel they’re being disenfranchised.

“We must keep politics on the campaign trail, and let the people vote,” she said. “Secretary Husted must work with local elections officials and voter advocates throughout Ohio to ensure that every registered voter who is willing to cast a ballot is able to and to ensure that those votes are counted accurately.”

Whatever happens on November 6th, it’s clear that the eyes of the nation will be on the vote count in Ohio, with Husted very much in the spotlight.

Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @thereidreport.