Don't worry about Ohio folks. We have everything under control!

Our Secretary of State in Ohio, Jon Husted, is a real ass to be sure, but there is nothing to worry about. He has tried plenty to screw with our vote and sow confusion but the Obama team, our local Dem party, and the Ohio voters have kept him in check!

They tried to pass a voter ID law but we stopped them! Being so soon after the petitions against their union busting law we got a repeal on the ballot in record time. When we did that they repealed the law!

Husted tried to create unequal voting hours but the outcry was so loud he was forced to standardize them.

He was successful in shortening the total number of early voting hours, eliminating all the weekends. But, when he tried to give voting veterans the final weekend all to themselves, the Obama team took him to court and forced him to give that one weekend to us all. The only downside being the elimination of one hour from each day.

The only real concern is his last minute directive that provisional voters have to fill out the forms themselves. This could lead to more ballots being thrown out but we've used these forms before so I wouldn't expect it to be too bad. It is somewhat compounded by the fact that some people didn't receive their absentee ballots so there will potentially be more provisional ballots cast but I still think the proper attitude here is cautious optimism.

On the Tea Party side of things, there is good news! The voter intimidation group True the Vote has been denied observer status!


As far as Tagg Romney owning voting machine companies that just isn't true. Hart makes the voting machines for two counties. An investment firm, HIG, has an investment fund that is invested in Hart. However, Tagg is not invested in that fund. He does have money in another HIG investment but it is not mingled with the Hart investment in any way, and he certainly doesn't have any ownership of Hart. See here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/romney/votingmachines.asp

Last but not least is the lawsuit being filed by Bob Fitrakis of the Free Press. This is way overblown in my opinion. http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/15/2012/4783

First a little about Ohio voting. We are allowed to request paper ballots. Also, the voting machines have receipts. The way they work is that there is a clear plastic window on the machine. As you make a selection you can see it being printed on the paper. It records each selection you make and if you make a change you can see that too. It is like an audit trail. When you press vote it records the final votes, encoded as a sort of QR code type of thing. Then it deposits the paper in the machine.

So what did Husted do with the software updates? Well he installed some software without it being certified by the state board. This is potentially against the law but he argues that since it isn't on the voting machines themselves and isn't an upgrade to the tabulator that it doesn't need to be. The software is from ES&S and is not something they coded up specifically for Ohio or anything. The details aren't exactly clear but it appears to be something to allow quicker transfer of completed tabulations to the central reporting software. The voting machines themselves are in no way involved. I could have this next part wrong, because, again, there aren't a lot of details, but it appears that votes are taken from the machines to a tabulator PC at the polling location. Then this new software somehow facilitates a transfer to the central reporting software.

It is fine to be upset and a little suspicious about adding uncertified software at the last minute. I certainly am. But I think there isn't really much chance something devious is going on. Besides, we have audit trail receipts and the totals at the precinct PCs to fall back on!

If you found this useful, or reassuring, please give it a kick so your fellow DUers can not worry, and be happy about the Obama win Ohio is going to deliver