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With polls finally closed, Brunner pleased with smooth election
The Toledo Blade
November 05, 2008
By Jim Provance
Ohio's polls closed Tuesday night without a single court order affecting the immediate counting of the vote.
"I'm very pleased with the way voting unfolded,'' said Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. "One of our attorneys who has been in the office since (Bob) Taft (in the 1990s) said never in the years she's been there has she experienced such a smooth presidential election. I'm happy for the state of Ohio.''
The Ohio Republican Party sued at midday Tuesday challenging, among other things, Ms. Brunner's more recent directives related to the counting of provisional ballots after the election.
The state's top elections official noted that she issued an early evening directive to boards of elections clarifying that provisional ballots were to be the ballots of last resort after hearing reports from Cuyahoga and Lucas counties that such ballots were issued too routinely.
She said voters should not have been forced to vote provisionally if their driver's licenses or state identification cards did not contain the voter's current address.
Ms. Brunner said her office did not know how many provisional ballots were cast statewide. She predicted that voter turnout probably did not reach the lofty record of 80 percent that she had previously predicted. She credited the relatively smooth election to early preparation, the offering of alternative paper ballots to shorten lines for electronic voting machines, and strong turnout for early and absentee votes.
