45 PERCENT OF VOTERS IN FRANKLIN COUNTY CAST ABSENTEE BALLOTS

Absentee balloting breaks Ohio record
Friday, January 9, 2009 3:12 AM
By Mark Niquette
45 PERCENT IN FRANKLIN COUNTY
The Columbus Dispatch
Nearly half of all Franklin County voters in the Nov. 4 election -- 45 percent -- cast an early absentee ballot by mail or in person at Veterans Memorial, the highest number in the state, records show.
Statewide, about a third of all Ohio voters used an absentee ballot, which almost doubled the previous record number of absentee votes cast in a state election and helped ease lines at the polls Election Day.
Other key findings from official county results collected by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office and obtained by The Dispatch:
• About 187,000 paper ballots were cast in Franklin and the 52 other counties using touch-screen voting machines, which is 5.5 percent of the total votes cast in those counties.
• Touch-screen counties used only 11 percent of the 1.7 million ballots they printed at Brunner's direction, or $3.70 for every paper ballot cast. Brunner is reimbursing those counties about $693,000 for their costs.
• A record 206,000 provisional votes were cast statewide, and 81 percent of those ballots were counted.
Brunner asked counties to provide supplemental information about absentee ballots and other items as part of their official canvass after the Nov. 4 election.
Records show that 1.7 million absentee votes were cast out of 5.8 million in Ohio, or 30 percent, including civilian and military and overseas ballots. The county rates ranged from 45 percent in Franklin County to 12 percent in Wayne County.
This was the first presidential election since the state passed "no-fault" absentee voting in 2005, and both elections officials and campaigns pushed the new option as a way to ease congestion at the polls and lock down votes of supporters.
The strategy worked; although some precincts had lines when they first opened, most were relatively slow after the initial rush and no significant waits were reported in most areas -- one of the major problems in the 2004 election.
Still, nearly 28,000 absentee ballots statewide were not counted because they were turned in late or for other reasons, records show.
Elections experts also have expressed concerns about the number of provisional ballots, which are cast by voters who move and don't update their registrations or whose names otherwise don't appear in the poll books.
The idea is to provide a fail-safe mechanism for valid voting because the ballots are held for 10 days to confirm eligibility. But experts say provisional ballots can become a target for postelection challenges and that qualified voters should be casting regular ballots.
There were 47,500 more provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 4 election compared with 2004, led by an additional 13,113 ballots from Franklin County, records show. A review is under way to determine the reasons those ballots were cast.
The rate of valid provisional ballots in the Nov. 4 election ranged from 100 percent in Monroe County to 56 percent in Brown County.
Paper ballots in touch-screen counties have been controversial for a year. Brunner required them after failing to get support to scrap all touch-screens in favor of optically scanned paper ballots after a study she commissioned in 2007 concluded the systems were substandard.
She argued that the paper ballots are a needed backup if machines break down and to help process long lines at the polls.
But county officials argue that they are too expensive for the number of voters who use them and essentially force counties to operate two election systems, which adds to the cost and delays the tabulation of results.

A bitter end to the Clark-Tipps State Street Lobbying Firm
State Street founders fight over finances
Trustee to oversee end of powerful lobbying firm
Friday, January 9, 2009 3:13 AM
By Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Neil S. Clark, right, said he's forming a new firm. Paul Tipps, left, asked for a trustee after saying Clark couldn't be trusted to dissolve their old one.
A trustee is being appointed to oversee the bitter end of State Street Consultants, the high-powered Columbus lobbying firm that once ruled Capitol Square.

Judge Julie M. Lynch of Franklin County Common Pleas Court is expected to issue an order today naming the trustee to handle the dissolution as part of the ongoing battle between firm founders Paul Tipps and Neil S. Clark.
Clark, meanwhile, said he's forming a new lobbying firm, Grant Street Consultants, with State Street's remaining employees and clients at 49 S. Grant Ave.
That was the outcome yesterday after a hearing in which Tipps took the stand to say that a trustee is needed because Clark, his former friend and partner, can't be trusted to manage the remaining assets and liquidation of State Street Consultants.
Tipps, 72, who retired at the beginning of 2006, accuses Clark of paying himself at least $1.5 million since then while not paying more than $300,000 in payroll taxes for the firm and more than $1 million in personal income taxes.
Clark also had his daughter and a woman living with him on the payroll, even though they did no work for the firm, and he used State Street employees to do work for Clark's separate lobbying business, Tipps alleges.
"Neil Clark is not only a good lobbyist; he's probably one of the very best lobbyists in the state," Tipps, a former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, testified yesterday. "He is equally a disaster when it comes to managing his own finances and the finances of State Street Consultants."
Clark, 55, a one-time chief financial officer for Ohio Senate Republicans, denies diverting any money. It was understood by both men that State Street was being run like a family business, said Clark attorney Bob Behal.
Clark, in turn, has complained about an agreement to pay Tipps $45,833 a month for 57 months to buy the separate lobbying firm that Tipps operated before he and Clark became partners.
Clark's attorneys opposed Tipps' request to appoint a trustee, arguing that it wasn't needed and that the dissolution would not be complicated. They also questioned whether Tipps had the legal standing to make the request.
But the attorneys did not offer any witnesses to rebut the testimony from Tipps, an accountant for State Street Consultants and a snippet of a video deposition from Clark that was played as he watched from the courtroom.
"From this day forward, our clients will continue to be represented by me and my team of lobbyists under a new entity called Grant Street Consultants," Clark wrote in a statement after the hearing. "I am elated that it appears the court is dissolving the old firm and appointing a trustee to close the books."
Tipps said he intends to file an amended lawsuit against Clark, accusing him of improperly diverting funds. Clark has countersued Tipps on grounds that Tipps made defamatory statements that harmed his reputation.
The Joint Legislative Ethics Committee, which handles lobbyist registration and ethics compliance, got a call yesterday with an updated address for Clark and fellow lobbyists Aaron Ockerman, Andrew Minton and John Singleton.
The impact of the legal fight on Clark's clientele will not be known until Feb. 2, the registration deadline for lobbyists and their employers. Legislative Inspector General Tony Bledsoe said he has received a number of requests from lobbying firms asking for Clark's 2008 list of clients.

Reality, Politics and Vacancies

Candidates for City Council
Non-Democrats need not apply for two seats
Sunday, January 4, 2009 3:36 AM
By Robert Vitale
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A phone-book-size stack of resumes and cover letters sits on the desks of Columbus City Council members who will pick two new colleagues on Jan. 12.
Sixty-five people applied to fill the vacancies. Over the next week, the five council members who remain will examine qualifications and read through essays on the big issues facing Columbus. They'll meet with any or all of the candidates before their public debate and vote.
However, their job won't be so hard if they follow council protocol. Although the law says anyone who's older than 18 and lives in Columbus can seek a council seat, tradition and politics narrow the list considerably.
Unwritten Rule No. 1: Only Democrats need apply.
Democrats have held every City Council seat since 2003, and they're not about to give one up willingly. Of the 65 council applicants, 40 are registered as Democrats with the Franklin County Board of Elections or have voted in Democratic primaries dating to 2000.
Only five are Republicans, and the rest have no affiliation because they've skipped voting in partisan primaries.
Franklin County Democratic Chairman William A. Anthony Jr. is officially neutral in the council selection process -- to a point. The party will endorse "whoever they pick, as long as they're a Democrat," he said.
And the way Anthony sees it, being a Democrat takes more than just a voting record. The two new council members must begin campaigns immediately to keep their seats beyond the 2009 elections, and it will take money, name identification and party support to win.
"Normally, you get all that because you have been involved in the party at some level," he said.
Of those 40 Democrats seeking council seats, half have deeper ties to the party, as party workers or leaders, campaign managers or volunteers, aides to Democratic officials, or as candidates or officeholders themselves.
Republicans, gloomy about their chances to win at the ballot box in a city where they're outnumbered 3 1/2 -to-1, hold absolutely no hope of slipping one of their own onto the council through appointment.
"This is where the reality of politics on the ground comes crashing up against the theory of good government," said Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin County GOP.
He -- and some Democrats -- predict an appointment for Eileen Y. Paley, a lawyer, former candidate for Franklin County Municipal Court judge and a vice-chairwoman for the county Democrats.
Paley also would fill what insiders say is emerging as another unwritten requirement in this round of council vacancies: Maryellen O'Shaughnessy, who resigned to become Franklin County clerk of courts, was the council's only white woman.
Two members of the Democrats' central committee, which will decide 2009 endorsements after new council members are chosen, have applied as well. Tony Eufinger is a law student at Capital University, and Marco Miller is a retired Columbus firefighter and former union president.
Two applicants already have won party endorsements in the past. Gary L. Baker II is a member of the Columbus school board, elected as a Democrat in 2007. Shawn Dingus lost a 2008 race for a Franklin County Common Pleas judgeship but notes on his resume that he carried 53 percent of the vote inside Columbus.
Communications consultant Michael D. Cole was a deputy campaign manager in 2007 for Mayor Michael B. Coleman and the Democrats' council candidates -- the five who will pick the new council members.
James C. Ragland works as the legislative aide to Councilwoman Charleta B. Tavares. Jo Anne St. Clair, a program manager in the city's neighborhood services division, coordinated campaign efforts in Franklin County when Tavares ran for Ohio secretary of state in 1998.
Tavares said she pays no attention to party affiliation or political work, looking instead for evidence that council applicants have been involved in a broader array of civic affairs.
Instead of selecting applicants for interviews, Tavares invited them all to make a pitch, blocking out time for interviews over 12 hours yesterday and today at City Hall.
One applicant called for that kind of process in his letter to council members.
"It would be naive for me to believe that many decisions aren't influenced by misdirected party affiliation," wrote Jose Cannon, a Northeast Side resident who works as a vice president for Vesdia Corp., a technology company. "I, however, am of the opinion that we need to get past the grandstanding and partisan politics of the past and vote for the best person regardless of party."
County records show Cannon is a registered Democrat who voted in a 2006 Republican primary.

Columbus City Council

Editorial
The best pick
City Council appointees need broad vision, should not be agents of narrow interests
Sunday, January 4, 2009 3:27 AM
City Council members have no shortage of hopefuls from which to choose two new colleagues: At least 65 people have applied for the seats left vacant by Maryellen O'Shaughnessy's election as clerk of Franklin County Common Pleas Court and Kevin L. Boyce's appointment as state treasurer.
But the pool of suitable candidates isn't quite that large. Some applicants have backgrounds or agendas that open to question their commitment to serve the entire city.
Many of the best City Council members over the years entered public service because of interest in a specific issue. And leadership in a civic group that serves a limited geographical area is a natural starting point for community leaders. But City Council has only seven members, each of whom must represent Columbus at large. Serving on the council requires the willingness to set priorities from a citywide perspective.
Activists who have sought to maximize a certain constituency's piece of the budget pie must recognize a responsibility for the entire pie and for all residents. Put another way, they're seeking promotion to management and must look out for the good of the corporation, not just the best deal for the department they came from.
The hopefuls also should realize the difficult circumstances in which they would take office. A City Council facing an $80 million budget shortfall for 2009 lacks the wherewithal to bestow favors on any group or cause, however worthy.
Until the financial picture improves, serving on the council will require saying no more often than yes.
Current members say they have made the selection process more open than in the past, when they were criticized for announcing the picks weeks before taking the official vote, making obvious that they had conferred and decided outside of public view.
This time, they say they won't confer before the vote.
They could prove their commitment to openness by holding a public discussion at a council meeting of the candidates' strengths and weaknesses. In an election, council candidates are publicly subjected to tough questions and criticism; council appointees should be able to withstand the same scrutiny. The public should know why a candidate is chosen or rejected.
Members should appreciate the importance of a fair process leading to a good choice; all of the sitting members originally came to their seats by appointment.
Voters eventually get the chance to ratify council appointments, when appointees must run for the remainder of a term or for election to a full term.