MELISSA BLOCK, host:
The new secretary of state of Ohio has an idea for how to help six election day troubles that have plagued that state. Jennifer Brunner is proposing that registered voters be drafted to work at the polls on election day, mandatory service much like jury duty. Ohio would be the first to do this statewide. The idea is there would be two training days and an eight-hour shift working the polls. The workers would be paid.
Secretary of State Brunner, who is a Democrat, says it's one way to restore faith in the vote.
Ms. JENNIFER BRUNNER (Secretary of State of Ohio): In terms of Ohio and what happened in the 2004 Presidential Election, there has been a crisis in confidence in our election system in Ohio, both nationally and in our state. One of the quickest ways to repair that is to make sure that we have adequate numbers of poll workers and poll workers who are well trained, because that's who the voters see when they go to vote. That's who the election protection folks see when they're there observing on election day. And in many places, especially in the urban areas, there is a great difficulty finding enough poll workers, and it's not acceptable and it's not in accordance with the law.
BLOCK: So under your plan, that would make poll watching duty mandatory. Who would the pool be? Where would you be drawing these workers from?
Ms. BRUNNER: Well, let me explain, too, that we suggested this as one tool that the boards of elections would have available to them for recruiting poll workers. We would be looking to do this similar to how we recruit jurors, only jurors are recruited for two weeks of service, whereas we'd only be asking for three days.
It would also allow us to offer split shifts to poll workers. In Ohio, the polling places are open for 13 hours, so essentially a poll worker works at least 14 hours, and with the average age of our poll workers at 72, that's a tough day for anyone no matter what the age is.
BLOCK: You know, I do wonder if with so many disincentives to voting now, whether this could be just one more, that people, some people, might say boy, if this means that I'm going to be in a pool for watching polls, which I really don't want to do, I'm just not going to vote.
Ms. BRUNNER: We've heard that complaint, but we don't believe that that's going to be a large disincentive. Most people who for the first time work as a poll worker want to do it again. They find it to be a very rewarding experience. My experience having been a judge in felony trial court in Columbus, my jurors really liked their experience. They were glad for it, and they felt that they were performing an important civic function.
BLOCK: I gather that one criticism is that since voting is a purely voluntary civic exercise, to inject any component of that that makes it mandatory really goes against the grain and the spirit of voting in this country. How do you respond to that?
Ms. BRUNNER: Some people have said that democracy should not be compulsory, and we really don't look at it as being compulsory. If the poll worker doesn't want to vote that day, they don't have to vote. We're simply asking them to help propagate democracy. Ohio has 11 million people. Not all of them are registered voters, but a good portion of them area, and to meet the needs of those people, to make sure that we get the vote count out quickly, especially in a presidential election, we're asking people to step up and participate.
We'll still undertake the very many efforts that we do now to get voluntary participation, but this is an issue out for discussion. It's still in its conceptual stages, and we are putting together the specifics of the proposal.
BLOCK: What's the reception been so far from the legislature? They would have to approve this plan if it were to take effect.
Ms. BRUNNER: The legislature is anxious to see a written proposal. Initially, we have mixed reviews of the proposal, but I think when we lay out exactly how this is going to work and that it's an option and that we can even include a trigger so that the county has to be deficient by a certain percentage of poll workers to even be able to use this, I think people may see it as a more viable option.
BLOCK: That's Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat. She's the new secretary of state of Ohio.
Copyright © 2007 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.