A well-run election

The few bumps in Ohio's voting were smoothed out under the capable stewardship of Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner

THE presidential election many feared might be a debacle in Ohio turned out, generally speaking, to be a smooth-running event, despite the near-record number of voters who endured long lines to cast their ballots.

Given the popularity of paper ballots in Lucas County and elsewhere across the state, it is hardly a surprise that final, unofficial results came in late — not until midmorning Wednesday here and Thursday morning in Franklin County, home of the state capital. The breadth of Barack Obama's victory was apparent early, which meant that the nation wasn't left in suspense about the presidential race.

There were some glitches, but the favorable outcome was because, in no small part, of the stewardship in Columbus of Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's chief election officer, who managed a cumbersome electoral apparatus well despite malicious political mischief that could have sabotaged Tuesday's vote.

Judges on the federal appeals court for Ohio also deserve credit for refusing to buy into unfounded lawsuits filed by the state Republican Party — litigation intended more to provide a platform for a GOP opponent of Ms. Brunner in 2010 rather than redress legitimate problems involving registration or voting.

Republicans, who lost control of the state House of Representatives in Tuesday's election, have tried to make Ms. Brunner, a Democrat, look bad in hopes of getting voters to kick her out in the 2010 election. Plainly put, the GOP will stop at nothing to gain control of the state apportionment board — made up of the governor, auditor, secretary of state, and two legislative members — and thus the power to draw legislative districts to the party's advantage for another decade.

Unfortunately for the Republicans, their apparent candidate for secretary of state, Jon Husted, who was elected to the state Senate on Tuesday, faces embarrassing questions about his legal residence.

According to news reports, Mr. Husted, the current speaker of the House, claims a voting address in Kettering, near Dayton, but he and his wife own — and receive "principal residence" property tax breaks on — two homes in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington, where the Husted family actually lives.

Such a controversy is an inauspicious start for a candidate for a statewide office that serves as guardian of the official roll of Ohio voters.

Ms. Brunner, meanwhile, has avoided partisanship in carrying out her duties, save for unnecessary niggling over the form of absentee ballot requests sent out by Sen. John McCain's campaign. While we believe that creation of a nonpolitical state office to run elections would diminish partisan finagling — or the appearance of it — Ms. Brunner has done a good job over the past two years in ensuring that qualified voters have an unobstructed path to the polls on Election Day.