BOE takes an early jump into the bad ballot pool

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - It's the Democratic process in action as a team of Democrats and Republicans in Montgomery County take a close and personal look at stacks absentee ballots.

About 1200 of the 74,000 absentee, in-person, nursing home, and military ballots returned have been flagged by the computer as having some form of voting irregularity.

For hours, and many cups of coffee, officials painstakingly inspected stacks of ballots, trying to determine the voters intent.
 
For many of these ballots, the intent is clear. The ballots will be copied by hand onto another ballot and counted successfully.

Many mistakes are caused by voter confusion, and one wonders if the ballots should be simplified.

"Well lawyers write these ballots," explained Susan Hesslegesser, Executive Director of the Leaguer of Women Voters. "No offense to lawyers, but they want to legally be able to insure the right things are on the ballot."

And that is language Hesslegesser says does not always translate to the average voter. She said that for some, the ballot becomes more like a test than a vote.

Back in the board room, officials are put to the test as they continue to go over every ballot, making sure each vote is counted fairly.

Election officials want to get ahead of this issue because they don't want it to become like the 2000 hanging chad incident occured in Florida, where judges, not the voters determined the outcome of the elections.