***Press Release*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 30, 2013

Contact: Adam Warren (614) 466-4583

Sen. Turner Votes Against Election Data-sharing Bill

SB 200 boasts high ideals, but falls short of what voters deserve
COLUMBUSYesterday, State Senator Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) joined other Democratic colleagues in the Senate in voting against Senate Bill 200. The bill is designed to increase the sharing of personal data from state agencies with the secretary of state for the purpose of maintaining statewide voter registration data. The bill would also expressly permit the secretary of state to share voter data with other states or groups of states in order to keep Ohios records up to date. While I certainly support the goal of more accurate election records, I believe that Senate Bill 200 does a disservice to Ohios voters by not appropriately ensuring the security of their personal records as they are transmitted across the country, said Senator Turner. Moreover, the bill does not address online voter registration or explicit authority for online registration update. These tools would allow our records to be even more accurate and dynamic. The bill also includes language that relaxes a ratio requiring a minimum number of voting machines in counties that utilize touch-screen voting technology. Senator Turner offered alternative language in a floor amendment that would temporarily relax these minimum standards to provide some fiscal relief to counties and allow the General Assembly to study the issue further and make a data-driven decision. While the language included in SB 200 does seem intuitive on the surface, we have to remember that the current ratio is essentially arbitrary, and thus any changes to it are based on an arbitrary pretense, Turner said. We should be taking a step back to learn the appropriate voter-to-machine ratio, and make sure that we dont penalize cash-strapped local governments in the process. Theres a better way to do this.

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