ePluribus Media OhioNews Bureau
STORY UPDATE
ONB COLUMBUS: Come Monday when Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner appears before a legislative panel to ask for their approval to receive funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts for an innovative effort to help residents who move keep their voter registration up to date, she should expect an unwelcome reception from one Republican member of the panel who has already expressed his concern with the limited scope of the initiative and with one of the project’s vendors.
In a published report Friday from the Associated Press (AP), State Senator John Carey, who sits on the Controlling Board (CB) because he chairs the Finance and Financial Institutions Committee, said he’ll oppose the model-program because it only covers 45 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and because a key vendor, Imagitas of Massachusetts, is the target of a federal lawsuit by motorists in five states, including Ohio, alleging it violated privacy laws preventing the disclosure of drivers’ personal information.
The good news for Brunner is that even though the tall senator from a small, rural town in southeast Ohio may be against it, the fact that the project doesn’t use any taxpayer dollars and could become a national model if proved successful may be enough justification to convince the rest of CB members to approve the pilot plan as yet another useful tool to increase voter participation by allowing Ohio residents to move their voter registration from place to place as easily as they move their household goods.
IMAGITAS OFFICIAL CLEARS THE AIR ON WELCOME-PACKET PLAN
The AP article, which has now been picked by other news sources, may be misleading because it paints Imagitas as a problem vendor when it isn't and leads readers to the erroneous conclusion that the company will receive personal voter information on Ohioans who receive a voter-registration form in the welcome packet that is automatically sent to people moving by The United States Postal Service (USPS.
Not mentioned by the AP story but absolutely key to the workings of the program is that the mailing is not sent out by the Ohio Secretary of State. Instead, the Ohio voter-registration information and form is just another insert into a an existing welcome packet already being sent that is already full of information and advertisements from other companies, like Home Depot, that people relocating to another address might find useful.
Furthermore, the AP article also neglected to say that Indiana and Kentucky will also be partners in the PCT funding. Carey may not understand that if he shoots down Ohio, he also shoots down the unique opportunity for Indiana and Kentucky to also be players in a project the PCT thinks if worthwhile enough to have have included two other states other than Ohio in it.
In an email to this reporter from Imagitas Vice President Alfie Charles providing program clarification as a counterbalance to the gaps in the AP article, he emphasized that Imagitas will "simply distribute the blank forms (from the Ohio SOS)in a pre-existing mailing from the US Postal Service. He underscored that Imagitas "will not receive any voter information at all" and that when movers do complete the forms, "all registration forms would be sent directly to election officials."
With the addition of the voter-form insert from the Ohio SOS, movers will not only know who many of their new local companies are, they'll also be able to move their voter registration to a new board of elections, and by doing so also inform their old board of elections of their move. This is a double dose of administrative help in one form because it provides valuable information to two boards of elections in one form.
Charles, a former assistant secretary of state for California, said one goal of the partnership between his company and USPS and PCT is to "see what policy benefits there would be if the State (Ohio)includes a voter registration form in the Welcome Kit that is already distributed to new movers as part of the USPS change of address program.
By registering people when they move, officials are not only adding names to the voter file they are also given an opportunity to remove old names from the file to eliminate ineligible voters from remaining on the rolls at their prior address. This program should improve the integrity of elections by promoting participation while simultaneously decreasing the potential for fraud that exists when "deadwood" remains on the voter file. [Alfie Charlies, Imagitas]
The main objective of the two-year project made possible through funding from the PCT’s "Make Voting Work" program is to take the lead on what could become the most efficient and cost-effective voter registration program in the nation.
CHARLES QUELLS CONCERNS OF PRIVACY ISSUES
While some critics may be quick to construct a spurious connection between the federal lawsuit in Florida by motorists alleging Imagitas of violations of privacy laws, Charles quells concerns by pointing out that Imagitas utilizes privacy protected advertising as a tool to help government fund essential services.
"We have never been accused of any security breaches or any redistribution or re-selling of anyone's personal data," said Charles, adding, "We simply do what we are required to do by contract with each of our state partners. "
He said the pending lawsuits are more about the concept of using advertising revenue to fund government services than about any inappropriate conduct by Imagitas.
I recognize there can be a reasonable policy debate about when and how advertising can and should be done, but our company is absolutely zealous about protecting personal privacy and ensuring that we never provide personal information to any of the advertisers that participate in the programs we provide for government.
Providing further support for his claim that Imagitas is not in the business of violating privacy laws, Charles said The Center for Democracy and Technology recently published a paper in their Guide to On-line Privacy singling out Imagitas as a model for how to protect privacy in the context of a public-private partnership.
WELCOME-PACKET PROGRAM BASICS
Primary program participants include the Ohio SOS, Imagitas, Inc., and The United States Postal Service. The program will also be reviewed by the 37 members representing a wide and diverse group of voting-related organizations who comprise the advisory council of the Voting Rights Institute, a think-tank on voting and voter-rights issues created when Brunner took office earlier this year.
Attempting to ease the burden that voter-registration practices place on voters, the Ohio project represents a novel but simple angle to distributing voter registration materials to potential voters at a moment in time when they are focused on the administrative activities associated with changing their residential address.
If proved successful in the 45 targeted counties such as Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton that loom large in the presidential battleground state of 2008 that is Ohio, the expectation of increased voter registration and voter participation and improvements in the processing of the glut of registration applications expected in the weeks immediately prior to a major presidential election will reason enough to upscale the project to include Ohio’s other 43 counties in time for the 2010 mid-term elections. And if success is shown in Ohio, it will likely be used in other states as well.
Moreover, an added benefit to Ohio is that it will add depth and accuracy to its database of Ohio registered voters and their interactions with election officials. Furthermore, the pilot project is expected to produce new research on better methodologies for studying quasi-experimental data, the kind that is commonly produced in election reform efforts, and serve as a model for future research and reform collaborations.
PLAN PROPONENTS HOPE IT DOESN'T BECOME ANOTHER TANGLE IN POLITICS
The Ohio CB, a bi-partisan legislative body created in 1917 to handle limited day-to-day adjustments needed in the state budget and currently controlled by a majority of Republicans, has tangled with Brunner before on her spending requests.
The most recent tangle in politics came in September when Carey and his Republican colleague, State Sen. Steve Stivers, delayed Brunner’s request of $1.8 million to perform a comprehensive review of Ohio’s election systems until she answered 23 questions they posed to her about both methodology and personnel used in the evaluation called EVEREST or Evaluation and Validation of Election Related Equipment Standards and Testing.
Carey is obviously ready to challenge Brunner again, this time over his weak but justifiable concern that the entire state isn’t included, and the inclusion of Imagitas, whose reputation maybe prematurely tainted due to the federal lawsuit filed in Florida against it by Ohio, Massachusetts, Missouri, Florida, Minnesota and New York, accusing the company of violating privacy laws by including advertisements in its mailings that may lead to the disclosure of names and addresses of individuals.
Charles said his company plans to also insert advertising into the Ohio Welcome-Kit and stressed Imagitas never shares personal information with the companies whose advertising it stuffs into envelopes. Not surprisingly, he predicted his company will emerge successful in the federal lawsuit against it that will be heard next January.
Brunner had to accept the participation of Imagitas becasue the company was already under contract with the U.S Postal Service, the pivotal component of the project, and will be paid $161,700 over the two-year period of the pilot project.
John Michael Spinelli is a former Ohio Statehouse government and political reporter and business columnist. He now serves as the OhioNews Bureau Chief for ePluribus Media Journal.
If Daily Kos readers have a news tip or story idea about Ohio politics or government, contact the OhioNews Bureau at: ohionews@www.epluribusmedia.org