Congressman Pat Tiberi's Capitol Notebook - December 19, 2004

Statement

If you are a county board of elections member in Ohio these days, I wouldn't blame you for wondering if the job was worth it any more.

Democrat or Republican (boards in Ohio are made up of two each), you're being scolded, second-guessed, and told you're responsible for election fraud and suppressing voter turnout in this year's elections. You might as well be walking around town with a "kick me" sign pinned to your backside. It would probably be more fun.

In most cases, the accusations that elections officials have had to listen to since November 2 don't hold water. Others verge on hysteria. One woman representing an organization called Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections in Ohio went before a very unofficial "hearing" in Washington recently to charge that, as she was quoted in The Columbus Dispatch, "(the) election system of the United States has been taken over by private corporations." Her evidence? A claim that someone had lost his job because he took too long to vote.

Maybe that happened, and maybe it didn't. If it's true, the employer should be ashamed. But to somehow use this accusation to charge that corporate America runs our polling places is absurd.

Since people had to wait in line to vote, sometimes for hours, accusers say there was an effort to keep them from voting-particularly minorities who overwhelmingly vote for Democrat candidates-by not providing enough voting machines. There are just a couple things wrong with that charge. First, the placement of voting machines is decided on jointly by the Republicans and Democrats who serve on each county board of elections. I don't think the Democrats would agree to a plan that would cost their candidates votes by shifting machines away from where their supporters cast ballots. Second, there were lines everywhere because of unprecedented turnout. As The Dispatch pointed out after the election, the busiest places to vote were not in the urban areas of Columbus, but in the suburbs.

All of this prompted Franklin County Board of Elections Chairman William Anthony to label those making these wild charges "a band of conspiracy theorists."

Anthony is also head of the Franklin County Democrat Party. I know him personally, as I do others who serve on the boards of elections in the three counties I represent. Democrat or Republican, they badly want their candidates to win. But above all else, they want to ensure that everyone eligible to vote has an opportunity to do so, and that each vote is counted accurately.

Could some things have been done better? Certainly. The House of Representatives will look at ways to make elections run more smoothly when the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal elections law, holds hearings early next year. The committee is chaired by my fellow Ohioan Bob Ney, who has a reputation for handling elections matters fairly and in a bipartisan manner.

In the meantime, let me say a few words to boards of elections members-and all other elections workers-that they might not have heard recently:

Thanks. Your hard work is appreciated.

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