Frank LaRose and Statehouse Republicans left Ohio in the lurch on voting system funding
More than $100 million in critical funding for Ohio counties to purchase new, secure voting machine systems could’ve been passed months ago in the state capital budget, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, Republican leaders at the Ohio Statehouse appeared to try to do a political favor for their 2018 Secretary of State candidate, state Sen. Frank LaRose, by leaving this crucial funding out of the capital budget to pass it as a LaRose-sponsored stand-alone bill.
So instead of being included alongside other important infrastructure spending, this voting systems funding has been held hostage for nearly two months to an Ohio House Republican Caucus mired in chaos and dysfunction due to a bitter Speakership fight.
Ohio’s voting machines are old
Most voting machines in Ohio were purchased in 2005 and 2006, with some purchased even earlier. Machines in Montgomery County were built in 2003 using, according to Board of Elections Director Jan Kelly, “technology from the Blackberry days.”
“Swift action on the part of the General Assembly to approve funding in the upcoming capital bill is necessary to ensure the appropriate runway for procurement, testing, and implementation timelines for proper deployment in advance of the 2020 presidential election cycle,” Husted wrote on Dec. 14, 2017.
Republicans and LaRose chose to score political points over funding new machines
Despite that, Republican legislators ignored Husted’s advice and left funding out of the state capital budget in an apparent attempt to score election-year political points for LaRose.
LaRose introduced a bill that proposes funding voting machines in an unknown process.
State Rep. Kathleen Clyde, the Democratic candidate for Ohio Secretary of State, pushed against leaving the funding out of the capital budget, where it appropriately belonged, warning in a March 1 statement that changing the process for voting systems funding “could result in further controversial changes to our election laws.”
“This looks like a blatant political maneuver for one party to score points,” Clyde observed.
LaRose’s bill leaves Ohio voters vulnerable to election interference
The LaRose bill does not require use of the most secure systems — paper ballot systems.
Clyde has taken issue with this, noting that much of the country is moving in the direction of secure paper ballots.
“Moving from a paper trail backup to an actual paper ballot is an essential piece of securing our elections,” Clyde said. “It’s not enough to say our machines are not connected to the Internet. The Internet is just one point of entry to attack voting and tabulating machines. Local private networks and other means of access and connectivity also put our elections at risk.”
Mired in chaos, Republicans continue to fail to name a speaker of the House
Since disgraced former Speaker Cliff Rosenberger resigned amid an FBI investigation, Republicans have engaged in nasty infighting over who will replace Rosenberger. In the past seven weeks, the Ohio House has been unable to pass a single bill — including legislation to fund new voting machines.
As the GOP plays politics, Ohioans lose
Funding necessary to replace outdated voting machines should have been passed in the capital budget months ago — but LaRose chose to play politics in a Republican-led Statehouse too mired in chaos to name a new speaker and pass any of the 100-plus bills that await.
Republican corruption and dysfunction are holding up critical work by counties and elections officials to protect elections in Ohio. This work is too important to be used as a political game piece for the personal benefit of Frank LaRose.
Ohioans deserve a secretary of state who will put the security of elections and the interests of voters first.
