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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > November > 10 > Entry
Sen. Seitz surprised by House committee OK of election bill; could doom quick final passage
Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, said late on Tuesday, Nov. 10, that he was surprised that earlier in the day the House Elections and Ethics Committee passed a comprehensive elections overhaul bill.
The 7-6 vote on House Bill 260 was along party lines, with Democrats voting “yes” and Republicans “no.” Democrats control the House.
Seitz is sponsor of Senate Bill 8, a less comprehensive election overhaul bill being considered by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Seitz said he thought there had been an agreement for him, Rep. Dan Stewart, D-Columbus, and key staffers to negotiate an agreed-upon bill that both the House and Senate could consider before any action was taken.
Now it is likely the Senate will proceed with its own bill and that there will not be time to reach agreement on a final bill before the end of the year, said Seitz. The goal had been to have a bill signed by Gov. Ted Strickland for the May 2010 primary. It is not considered likely that negotiations would go on in 2010 before the primary and general election on a topic as sensitive as election overhaul.
Seitz predicted that if the full House goes ahead as planned next Wednesday and approves House Bill 260, that the Senate would pass its own bill and the two pieces of legislation would pass each other like two ships in the night.
He said he objects to many parts of the House bill. For example, it would allow the secretary of state to break a 2-2 tie on a county board of elections to permit increasing the number of early voting centers in a county from one to as many as four.
Seitz’s bill would require approval of at least three of four elections board members to increase the number of early voting centers. His bill would let counties increase the number of early voting centers to three. Seitz said he is not concerned whether the number of centers would be three or four but that a three-member super majority should be required to add early voting centers, not the involvement of the secretary of state.
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