Voters Comfortable With Machines

Apparently we are not alone in believing that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s attempt to take the state elections process back to the 19th century is a bad idea. During the March 4 primary election, Ohioans “voted” on the idea — through their choices of how to cast ballots.

Earlier this year, Brunner, the state’s chief elections officer, revealed a study that purported to show that electronic “touch-screen” voting machines are susceptible to being “hacked.” According to Brunner, that raises a possibility that elections could be influenced illegally and unfairly by changing the machines’ vote counts.

Brunner immediately demanded that every county with the machines provide paper ballots for voters who wanted to use them on March 4. The cost of printing those ballots was $358,000, it was revealed this week.

But another number reported this week is illuminating: Only about 1 percent of voters in the 53 counties where paper ballots were an option chose them. Nearly everyone voting on March 4 chose the machines.

We do not fault Brunner for worrying about vote fraud in Ohio. But, as we have pointed out, alternatives to machines, including allowing voters to submit paper ballots by mail, are invitations to fraud, too.

Instead of simply throwing out voting machines with which most Ohioans seem comfortable, Brunner should look into what can be done to deal with concerns about “hacking.” For every electronic loophole, after all, there is some sort of solution.