Brunner Proposes Changes to Ohio Election System

Brunner proposes sweeping changes to the way Ohio conducts elections, including changing voter identification requirements and early voting rules.

By: Marshall McPeek | NBC4i.com
Published: April 22, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner proposed sweeping changes to the way Ohio conducts elections Wednesday.

Click here to read the full proposal.

"The changes," she said, "are not designed to benefit one political party or another."

The secretary's report to the governor and the general assembly was compiled after meetings with elections officials across the state, voting-rights activists, law professors and help from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

The report recommends moving the dates of special elections to coincide with primary or general election days.

Brunner said the move would save taxpayers $2.7 to $5.4 million per year in elections expenses.

Under the proposal, voters would be allowed to use a driver's license as identification or two nonphoto IDs, such as utility bills, that would confirm a name and address.

The new requirements would focus on verifying identity rather than address, which the report claimed is more in line with the procedure in other states.

The report also recommended redesigning Ohio driver's licenses to make them less confusing as ID.

It recommended enhancements to the Statewide Voter Registration Database so it can more easily interact with the database at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to help with legitimate voter registration.

Since early voting was so successful in the last presidential election -- an estimated 45 percent in Franklin County -- Brunner proposed increasing the number of early voting locations allowed in each county from one to four and ending the early voting by 5 p.m. on the Sunday before an election to give county elections workers more time to prepare for the main event.

The proposal also would make it easier for smaller, third parties to get on the ballot by requiring fewer petition signatures before a primary election.

"We hope the General Assembly will consider and enact these recommendations soon," Brunner said, "to give boards of elections more time to prepare."