Please urge OH Gov Taft to veto (OH HB 3

 OH State Senator Teresa Fedor asked if we would contact Governor Taft and urge him to stand up against the Republican Disenfranchisement legislation commonly known as OH HB 3.  Please take the time to urge Gov Taft to do the right thing and veto HB 3:
Contact Governor Taft

Governor Taft values your views and opinions, and his staff monitors these messages. Responses are sent via U.S. mail. You will not receive a response via e-mail.

If you'd like to contact Governor Taft by U.S. postal mail, address your correspondence to:

Governor Bob Taft
30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117

Phone 614-466-3555 or 614-644-HELP 

or e-mail:

http://governor.ohio.gov/contactinfopage.asp

Here is background information on HB 3 (Thanks to John Burik of CASE Ohio):

First, the Senate version of the bill passed mid-December 2005 includes the now infamous ID requirement:

   Sec. 3505.18. (A)(1) When an elector appears in a polling place to vote the elector shall announce to the precinct election officials the elector's full name and current address and provide proof of the elector's identity in the form of either a current and valid photo identification or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and current address of the elector.

Source: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText126/126_HB_3_RS_N.html

It also does away with a mandatory recount as a machine audit by removing an entire paragraph from the House version and substituting it with a section on “ballots on demand”:

   Sec. 3506.20.  (A) As used in this section, "ballots on demand voting system" means a system that utilizes ballots printed as needed by election officials at the board of elections for distribution to electors, either in person or by mail. 

    (B) No board of elections shall use a ballots on demand voting system unless each ballot printed by the system includes a tracking number.

Source: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText126/126_HB_3_RS_N.html

That section in the House version passed last spring required the random recount of an issue or office as a machine audit:   

   Sec. 3506.20.  Any county that uses direct recording electronic voting machines with a voter verified paper audit trail as the primary voting system for the county and not only for accessibility for individuals with disabilities under section 3506.19 of the Revised Code, within two months after the day of each general election in which a county office or a county question or issue is on the ballot, shall conduct a complete recount of any one county office or issue voted on at that election using the voter verified paper audit trail produced by those machines. The county office or county question or issue to be recounted shall be selected at random from all of the county offices, questions, and issues voted upon at that election. A recount conducted under this section shall be for the purpose of verifying the accuracy of those machines and shall not change the result of the election as determined by the official canvass of the election returns for that election.

Source: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText126/126_HB_3_PH_N.html

What the Senate version took away was the machine audit.  It did not change recount procedure per se.

The 3% random recount you may have heard or read about comes from directives issued by Secretary Blackwell in his role as chief election officer.  In 2004 it was required (although not followed).  In 2005 Blackwell issued Directive No. 2005-32, November 17 which removed the requirement for randomness:

The board must select one or more whole precincts whose total equals at least 3% of the total vote and must manually count those precincts' ballots. Selection method need not be mathematically random . If the recount involves only one precinct, a manual count shall be conducted.

Source: http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/ElectionsVoter/OhioElections.aspx?Section=1200  Scroll down to 2005-32.  The complete document is http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/electionsvoter/directives/2005/mainDocs/Dir2005-32.pdf

You may also hear or read something about “close elections.”  That refers to an automatic recount in elections in which the margin of victory was less than one-half of one percent (or in certain cases only one-fourth of a percent).  Neither the House nor the Senate version of HB3 addressed that topic.  It is set forth in the current Revised Code:

<§ 3515.01.1> § 3515.011. Recount in certain close elections.  

If the number of votes cast in any county or municipal election for the declared winning nominee, candidate, question, or issue does not exceed the number of votes cast for the declared defeated nominee, candidate, question, or issue by a margin of one-half of one per cent or more of the total vote, the appropriate board of elections shall order a recount which shall be conducted as provided in sections 3515.04 and 3515.05 of the Revised Code. 
 
...

Source: http://onlinedocs.andersonpublishing.com/oh/lpExt.dll/PORC/18acd/19001/19003/1900a?fn=document-frame.htm&f=templates&2.0#

The Senate version of HB 3 quintuples the cost of recounts:

   Sec. 3515.03.  Each application for recount shall separately list each precinct as to which a recount of the votes therein is requested, and the person filing an the application shall, at the same time, deposit with the board of elections fifty dollars....

Source: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText126/126_HB_3_RS_N.html

Finally, the recently passed Senate version prohibits contests of a federal election :

   Sec. 3515.08.  The (A) Except as otherwise provided in this division, the nomination or election of any person to any public office or party position or the approval or rejection of any issue or question, submitted to the voters, may be contested by qualified electors of the state or a political subdivision. The nomination or election of any person to any federal office, including the office of elector for president and vice president and the office of member of congress, shall not be subject to a contest of election conducted under this chapter. Contests of the nomination or election of any person to any federal office shall be conducted in accordance with the applicable provisions of federal law.

Source: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText126/126_HB_3_RS_N.html

In summary, the worst features of HB 3 are found in the Senate version and include:

• Restrictive ID requirements (Sec. 3505.18)
• Deletion of the recount as machine audit (Sec. 3506.20)
• Unaffordable recount cost (Sec. 3515.03)
• Prohibition of election contests (Sec. 3515.08)

What the bill did not address—and should—is making mandatory a 3% random whole-precinct recount to determine whether the machine count and hand count match in recount situations.  If not, a 100% hand recount should be required.