'Challengers' - Blackwell IV.A

Into the Senate swaggered this mighty reforming bill and stopped dead in its tracks thanks to the usual Senate instrasigence, made worse by deadlock. Owing to the 50-50 split in the Senate, Mississippi Senator and Majority Leader Trent Lott compromised with the Democratic Leader, Senator Tom Daschle, on committee membership.

The result allowed each party to have even membership on the committee roles, with the Repubplicans controlling the chairmanships. This split led to a legislative crawl, which came to a complete stop on 24-May-2001 when the Republican Senator from Virginia, Jim Jeffords, defected from the party and changed his affiliation to independent, thereby giving control of the Senate to the Democrats, 50 - 49. Any pending legislation went on life support that day.

The Senate managed to pass the Bill S.565 on April 11 fully four months after the House. The Bill passed by a 99 -1 vote, with Montanta's Conrad Burns (R) dissenting. The Bill traveled into a House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences.

That same day Blackwell praised, applauded, and thanked the US Senate for passing a bill authorizing the use of federal monies to improve voting equipment and procedures. Telegraphing his next move, should the bill receive final passage. he curtly stated

"It will provide Ohio with the financial resources necessary for the implementation of substantial election reform in our state. Ohio should eliminate the punch card system as our state’s dominate voting system by the general election in 2004."

Returning back to Columbus Ohio and the State House on April 23, Lendrum and Blackwell introduced and held hearings on H.B. 565, which was a House Bill designed to implement all of the recommendations issued by Elections Commision of H.B. 5 infamy. Notably missing among the recommendations was the changeover from punch-cards ballots to optical scan or electronic voting machines. Encouraging the House to move swiftly on the bill, Blackwell thanked Lendrum for introducing the measure, since "this measure goes one step further in strengthening our state’s elections system."

As the Senate and House debated the final passage of H.R.3295 and S.565, SoS Blackwell stated in an Ocotber 4, 2002 press release

"The federal election reform bill will provide Ohio with the financial resources necessary to continue election reform efforts in our state... These funds will enable Ohio counties to purchase upgraded voting machinery that will make our elections process more reliable, more accurate, and more voter-friendly.”

So, in spite of Ohio's Democratic and RINO opposition, Blackwell received for that which he had asked, a bill that would improve the reliability of Ohio's elections as well as fund new voting machines to replace the Chad's. In the same press release, Rep Ney, chief sponsor of the bill, complemented Blackwell by stating

“If it wasn’t for Ken Blackwell, this bill would not be a reality today... He was the first person in the country to pick up the phone to help secure support for this legislation from election officials across the nation... This is a monumental piece of legislation that will make it easier to vote and
harder to cheat.”

Thus thanks belongs to Blackwell for pushing and networking until the bill got past. Later on, during the planning for Ohio's State Plan for Election Reform, Chet Kalis, staffer for Rep. Ney, revealed just how much HAVA 2002 reflected Blackwell's thoughts on election reform. Kalis stated on April 3, 2003,

Before we made any commitments on how we were going to do this thing, we made the phone call. Because I used to think of Secretary Blackwell, if he says yes, then we went forward; is he says no, then we don't (15.12 - 15.15).

Without Blackwell's workhorse effort, it is a distinct possibility that HAVA 2002 would never have become public law.

But what doest this mean for those Ohio Reps who voted against the bill? Apparently, those who opposed this measure did not care enough to upgrade Ohio's election's systems.

Finally, On October 8, one month before election day, the conference comittee ironed out its disagreements and passed the bill. The House voted 357-48 to pass the newly ammended bill with the Senate voting 92 -2 to pass the bill.

On October 10, 2002 Rep Ney complimented Blackwell's perseverance and help in the Congressional Record, when he stated

"I want to thank the groups whose efforts and support made this possible: the National Associa-tion of Secretaries of State, including our Secretary of State Ken Blackwell of Ohio, who picked up the phone on the first day after the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) and I got together and said he wanted to be a part of the process to help."

This testimony shows that without the prodding of SoSc Blackwell, not much would have been accomplished in regards to the passage of the Bill. Again, a war against terror, a buildup to a war in Iraq, an election's season and gridlock, slowed a normally slow Senate down to a snail's crawl.

President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on 29-October-2002, a complete 10+ months after the US House passed the bill and some 17-18 months after the House had begun working on crafting the legislation. Soon would begin the voting machine gold-rush. President Bush commented

"This act appropriately respects the primacy of state and local governments in the administration of elections, while helping to ensure the integrity and efficiency of voting processes in federal elections by providing federal government support in that manner."

The President's comment reveals that Blackwell received what he sought: state administration and federal funding of federal elections. Yet, those who invite the Feds, whether by law or money, open a Pandora's box of troubles, because the Fed never decreases in size nor desire for influence.

*Governor Taft said nothing. His press releases did not mention, did not congratulate , and and did not urge that federal be allocated for voting machines. Admittedly it was an election year so Taft was focused on his own reelection and furthermore since he had had zero part in getting the federal legislation past, which took 18 months by the way, he could seem to be grandstanding and raining on Blackwell's parade. Blackwell is the state's chief election's officer but a few words from the governor could indeed push things along faster in Ohio or talked to Ohio's Senators or if he sought a higher office he could have engaged in a little quid pro quo with Ohio's Congressional REpresentatives or Ohio's Senators. But he did nothing and Blackwell was left to push alone. For a second year in a row, Governor Taft's "Year in Review" failed to mention any of Blackwell's accomplishments thus far.

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