Green Party Candidate Counting on Errors
By Jim Bebbington
A Columbus lawyer and Green Party candidate for Ohio governor said his main reason for running is the unlikely outcome of him winning under the voting systems the state uses.
Touch-screen voting systems are open to fraud, he said, and disconnect people's votes from the paper record that's printed and stored as a backup. |
Bob Fritakis is a critic of the new voting systems put to use in most Ohio counties.
Touch-screen voting systems are open to fraud, he said, and disconnect people's votes from the paper record that's printed and stored as a backup.
In a switch from punch-card balloting, driven by federal law after the contentious 2000 presidential vote, most Ohio counties have purchased voting systems that use touch-screens to record the vote electronically, and print a paper record in case of a recount.
Fritakis said the systems are not transparent and should be replaced with systems that use computer touch pads but that physically type the votes onto a paper ballot as the voter watches, and then officials should count the paper ballots.
Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, whose office guided the switch to new systems, defends the systems as secure and verifiable.
Also in Dayton with Fritakis were his lieutenant governor candidate Tim Kettler of Coshocton and Logan Martinez of Dayton.
Martinez is running for the 39th Ohio House seat now held by Democrat Dixie Allen, who cannot seek re-election because of term limits.
Green Party candidates will not appear on the May ballots because they have no primary election.
To appear on the November ballot, they must submit enough signatures in May to qualify for their respective races.
