Things Are Going to Get Ugly

I reported in mid-January that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell decided that optical scan voting devices must be used in all of Ohio's 88 counties.

Now, Attorney General Jim Petro has stated that Blackwell doesn't have the authority to make such a decision.

The state's top elections official did not have authority to order counties to use one type of voting machine, Attorney General Jim Petro said Tuesday, a day before the deadline for counties to submit their machine choices.

"The ultimate discretion is really the county boards' and not the state and that's the law," Petro said Tuesday evening.

Blackwell's spokesman responded.

And unlike Petro's written opinion, "The secretary of state's directive carries the weight of law, and he expects that to be complied with," LoParo said.

Both Republicans are running for Ohio governor in 2006. The two have already clashed on a proposed constitutional amendment to limit Ohio's budget spending.

The jockeying for position in 2006 has begun.

These two, plus Auditor Betty Montgomery, are going to tangle many times over the next several months. It isn't going to be pretty.