Oops! Looks like election administration in Ohio is doing about as well as our prospects of seeing bared genitals at the Grammys this weekend — that is, not great. The Pew Charitable Trusts just released its Elections Performance Index, a comprehensive analysis of how well states administer elections based on a matrix of performance indicators, and the survey ranks Ohio in the middle with an overall EPI Average in the low 60th percentile — not exactly satisfactory for such a crucial battleground state.
The organization, which has rendered the ever-riveting topic of election data analysis as approachable and winning as possible with an interactive map and massive bar graph on its site, indicates several chief areas of underperformance in Ohio’s 2008 and 2010 elections (data for 2012 will be released later this year).
Our high rates of provisional and absentee ballot rejection were of primary concern, along with our frequency of disability- and illness-related voting issues and our preponderance of voter registration problems. The addition of an election result audit requirement helped net Ohio a slightly higher ranking in 2010 than 2008. But hey, at least we can gloat about not living in Mississippi, where people (only the white ones, thanks) evidently vote in shacks using sweetgum bark smeared with their own poop and Jamie Lynn Spears tabulates all election results with her glitter abacus.
