Ohioblog: A Swing State Journal

Is this any way to run an election? 

If voters were customers, Ohio election officials would be looking for new jobs, their business shut down by consumer revolt. Customers don't stand in line for four or five hours. They demand service. Often loudly. CAN YOU HEAR THIS? OHIOBLOG IS SHOUTING. (BLOG FEELS LIKE DAVE BARRY WITH ALL THESE STUPID CAPITAL LETTERS.) Beyond the usual individual problems, Election Day, with a record Ohio turnout of 5.6 milliion, made it clear that Ohio needs to alter how it votes and join much of the rest of the country in allowing early voting. Ohio is among only 19 states that do not allow early voting. So Ohioans stood in line for hours to vote. There still might have been lines in some locations at peak voting periods. But nothing like Ohio experienced Tuesday. Florida used early ``no-excuse'' (as in you don't
need one as a voter does with an absentee ballot) and one-sixth of the state's 6 million voters took advantage of the opportunity. J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio secretary of state, has proposed mail-in ballots, weekend voting and a two-day voting period. The General Assembly, naturally, said no. (It says no to almost all good ideas, including funding Ohio's schools adequately.) In the wake of this election, however, Gov. Bob Taft said in a news conference that Ohio might consider alternative voting. It is past time.

posted by Ohioblog: A Swing State Journal at 9:55 AM