The Ohio House passed an elections reform package that could make several improvements to the state’s election system. The bill still needs approval from the Senate and signed by the Governor.

The Ohio House passed a bill today over Republican objections to make sweeping changes to how elections are run in Ohio, including expanding the number of sites a county can offer for early-absentee voting.

House Bill 260 passed the Democrat-controlled House 53-45 and now moves to the GOP-led Senate, where its future is uncertain. The Senate has been considering its own elections bill, Senate Bill 8.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat who supports the House bill and convened two summits to consider changes after the 2008 election, observed the vote personally in the House gallery.

The DDN posits how the sale of Diebold to Premier Election Systems may impact the voting rights of Ohioans.

The company that makes voting machines used in Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Darke and Butler counties has sold that operation to the company that makes the machines used in all the other counties in the Miami Valley: Warren, Preble, Clark, Champaign, Shelby and Clinton.

On the surface, that doesn’t sound like a great thing. The big get bigger. Less competition.

In this case, however, there’s good news.

The hyper-controversial Diebold Inc. makes the touch-screen, ATM-like machines used in the first group of counties. In recent years, it changed the name of its election-machine subsidiary to Premier Election Solutions Inc. and has taken a hands-off approach. But the machines are still associated with Diebold.

Ohio Democrats have put forth a new set of proposals to reform the state’s election system.

Ohio voters would be able to vote early at more locations — but for a shorter time — and would encounter simpler voter identification requirements under legislation House Democrats plan to introduce Tuesday.

The wide-ranging elections bill is the culmination of months of discussions following the 2008 presidential election, which largely went smoothly but was still marked by partisan bickering. A measure with some of the same provisions introduced by Republican lawmakers at the end of 2008 was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, who said it was pushed with haste.

In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said early voting would begin 20 days before Election Day and end the weekend prior so local officials have time to prepare. Voters in each county would have the option of choosing from as many as four early voting sites instead of one.

The ABJ breathes a collective sigh as the U.S. Supreme Court does not eviscerate Section 5 of the historic Voting Rights Act.

Listen to the oral argument in April, and the fair conclusion was: The Supreme Court appeared ready to cast aside a core provision of the Voting Rights Act. On Monday, the court ruled in the case involving a Texas utility district seeking to ”bail out” of Section 5, an aspect of the law requiring covered jurisdictions, mostly in the South, to get permission from the Justice Department or a federal court before they make changes to voting procedures.

An 8-1 majority granted relief to the utility district, but it did so narrowly. It limited the option to small jurisdictions that do not handle their own voter registration. That amounts to a qualified victory for those concerned about the court acting hastily to remove a key tool in protecting civil rights, especially in view of the coming Census and the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts.

Of worry was the tone of the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts. He made much of the ”historic accomplishments” under the Voting Rights Act. He stressed that ”things have changed in the South.” He highlighted the strides in voter turnout and registration, plus the ”unprecedented levels” of elected minority officeholders.

The Vindy makes a case that Ohio election reform is best served with bi-partisan cooperation between members of the OGA and Secretary of State Brunner.

Without the involvement of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, election reform coming out of the General Assembly will lack the credibility voters have been demanding since the controversial 2004 presidential election.

It’s more than just giving the state’s chief elections officer a place at the table at which the new rules, regulations and procedures are being developed. Brunner has something to offer that legislators do not have: The input of the men and women working in the boards of elections, county commissioners who pay for elections, voting rights activists and state even lawmakers.

Last year, over a period of about six months, there were statewide summits and regional conferences that delved into the shortcomings in Ohio’s system spotlighted in 2004. The sessions also focused on ways to increase voter participation, protect the sanctity of the ballot and guarantee the most accurate vote count.

A sensible editorial from the DDN on the need to extend voting opportunities to more people in Ohio.

In 2008, Ohio voters had their first chance to vote early — without swearing, say, that they were going to be out of town or in the hospital. The experiment was a wild success, overall.

Many thousands of people voted in person in the month before the election.

The result was not any great increase in voter turnout over 2004. But turnout was good, and, after all, in 2004, there was an extraordinary increase. That increase was basically sustained.

Brett McClafferty, a 20-year-old, will challenge an age restriction to run for a Streetsboro City Council seat.

Streetsboro voters adopted a charter amendment in November 2007 that requires council and mayoral candidates be at least 23 years old. This was after McClafferty - then 19 - came one vote short of his goal to get on the ballot to run for mayor.

Now McClafferty, who will turn 21 on March 9, is prepared to challenge the age requirement, which he thinks is discriminatory. If the elections board refuses to certify his candidacy Tuesday, he plans to file a federal lawsuit.

”I’d like to see the courts acknowledge this law is unconstitutional and arbitrary,” said McClafferty, a Cleveland State University student. ”I think this is a fight for young people across the country. It’s a slippery slope. If you acknowledge an age requirement is legitimate, there is no reason all municipalities can’t start adopting them.”

[…]

Avery Friedman, a Cleveland civil-rights attorney, CNN legal correspondent and law professor, is representing McClafferty. He took the case after McClafferty sent him several albums full of newspaper clips and photographs chronicling his quest to achieve public office.

”I absolutely adore this case,” Friedman said. ”To me, the legal issue is more intriguing than Brett’s very colorful personality. In a nation that prides itself on equality and fairness, to think that an American could be barred from being a political candidate because of age strikes me as inconsistent with the Constitution.”