Recently the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) did a piece on charge and countercharge on elections violations coming out of Tuscarawas Township.
Although the staff of the Ohio Elections Commission was very cooperative and faxed requested information to The Report, the Commission's website is pathetic.
Commission Executive Director Phillip Richter was apologetic that The Report and other interested Ohioans could not access information from a database (a la the Ohio secretary of state's website), the fact of the matter is that there is scant information available to Stark Countians or any other Ohioan who wants to know about complaints filed, the progress of the proceeding, the disposition of a given case and obtaining a transcript of proceedings.
Why is this website so pathetic?
Because it has no money or technical support to the executive director.
The Report pointed out to Richter (who only has two staff members to help with the volumes of complaints filed and processed) how wasteful it was of staff time for his administrators to field telephone calls, take notes on the desired information, gather the records and mail (which would necessitate the additional step of copying them first) or fax the records to the requester.
Richter readily agreed.
So did Stark Countian Steve Meeks, who is Governor Strickland's Regional 9 Director. Meeks is the "eyes and ears" of the governor for Stark County as well as nearby counties.
On contacting Meeks, he swung into action contacting Region 9 legislators (including Stark's Oelslager [a champion of public records assessibility], Stephen Slesnick, John Hagan and Kirk Schuring [who may to be too busy running for Congress to address this matter.]
Why the legislators?
Meeks says that Election Commission operation is funded directly by the Legislature and the dearth of funds in attributable to the Ohio General Assembly.
The legislator who bears particular watching on getting something done poste haste on this matter is Scott Oelslager (R-Plain). Oelslager has made a political living on playing to The Repository and Ohio media in general on his devotion to the cause of open public records and accessibility.
Fixing this glaring hole in the public records scheme of things is a grand opportunity for Oelslager to shine.
But Governor Strickland himself is also on record as being a foremost proponent of open public records and accessibility. And, The Report is impressed that Meeks was quick to see how inadequate the Commission's website operation is and immediately began taking steps to remedy the situation.
Question: Does it surprise you to learn how out-of-date and "technologically challenged" the Ohio Elections Commission is? Will Oelslager attend to fixing this problem?
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