Official to help reform elections

A county commissioner joins the National Commission on Election Standards and Reform group, which will propose to Congress how to avoid this year's election problems in the future.

By EDIE GROSS

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 12, 2000

Pinellas County Commissioner Barbara Sheen Todd has joined the war on chad.

Todd, a commissioner for 18 of the last 20 years, was drafted onto a national election reform committee this weekend.

She joins 20 other county officials, election scholars and members of civic organizations from across the country who will propose to Congress specific reforms in the country's election system.

Dubbed the National Commission on Election Standards and Reform, the group will look at how ballots are designed, elections are funded, votes are recounted and poll workers trained. The group also will study voting technology.

Todd said the goal is to avoid this year's fiasco in future elections.

"Everyone has been very disturbed about all that's occurred with this presidential election, and I think all of us in America would like to be assured this won't happen again," she said.

Todd was named to the group by the National Association of Counties, of which she is a former president. She is the only Florida member on the reform committee.

"Congress is going to be making all kinds of proposals, but elections take place in counties, so the idea is that counties should participate in the decisionmaking process," Todd said. "We're in the trenches. The counties are really where elections take place."

The elections commission will hold its first meeting Jan. 10 in Washington. No deadline is set for a final report to Congress, but "there's a sense of urgency," Todd said.

A study of 3,140 counties conducted two years ago by Election Data Services, a political consulting firm in Washington, showed nearly 39 percent used optical scan voting, which requires voters to fill in bubbles on a ballot. The next most popular method was using punch cards, the chad-filled system that has wreaked havoc in Florida during the last month.

Todd's committee is not alone in trying to tackle the problem. The National Association of Secretaries of State has formed a special 10-member committee on election reform.

At least six separate election reform acts have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House over the last month. Another piece of proposed legislation would ban punch cards.

The National Commission on Election Standards and Reform does not have authority to implement any of its recommendations, but its members hope Congress will at least consider the body's work, said Liz Galewski, a spokeswoman with the National Association of Counties.

"We feel like we have a really interesting point of view that people would want to pay attention to," Galewski said. "If we don't present the county voice on the national scene, nobody's going to."

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