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My first experience with optical scanners in polling places was 10 years ago, in New Hampshire.  As state director of the coordinated campaign, I was concerned.  As an international election observer, and soon to return to NDI for another tour in the former soviet republics, I was intrigued.  All of this was before ballot integrity was even a minor thought on the American political landscape.

I went into a polling place in Manchester during a cool November, 1998, morning, and watched the voters interact with the machine.  It was seamless and intuitive.  The voter knew instantly what to do with the ballot, almost all without instruction.  In the ballot went.  The voters waited for confirmation of a correct ballot.  And left.  

During the count that night, I arrived at a key bellwether polling place in suburban Manchester, prepared for a long night.  Coffee in a thermos, water bottles, snacks.  All the observers sat down in front of the machine, and a poll worker pressed a button.  Out came a report.  She read the results.  And that was that.  It took 15 minutes.  

My obsession that cycle was the state senate candidate who I assigned to a young Tim Ryan.  I went back to the office to wait for results.   One tiny town had yet to report, and the margin was razor thin.  I was pulling my hair out.  The town reported, and we lost by 7 votes.  They recanvassed, and the margin came down to 5 votes.  But we still lost.  

I called the candidate and asked him if he wanted a recount.  He didn’t. Had we asked for a recount, there is almost no chance we could have found a net plus-6 votes without shenanigans over ballots, and we decided that those shenanigans, such as looking for oddities in the ballot papers, would not yield a victory, largely because of the optical scan system’s accuracy, a system which was in operation in the largest precincts in Manchester.

It is about damn time that Cuyahoga County put this system in place, and I applaud Jennifer Brunner for her efforts to make this happen.  There are many things that can go wrong before November, but Brunner has proven herself the most capable and determined of all our statewide officials, bar none.  She has taken a major issue statewide, and has just about solved it.  Cuyahoga County will no longer be a laughingstock nationally on election night.

Thank you Jennifer.  

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