Franklin County and all other Ohio counties that use touch-screen voting systems must provide a paper ballot to any voter who asks for one in the March 4 primary, the state's chief elections officer has ordered.

Franklin County and all other Ohio counties that use touch-screen voting systems must provide a paper ballot to any voter who asks for one in the March 4 primary, the state's chief elections officer has ordered.

Poll workers won't be told to offer the option to voters but must provide a ballot if requested to help "avoid any loss of confidence by voters that their ballot has been accurately cast or recorded," a directive from Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said. The paper ballots would be counted by optical scanners at county elections boards.

Brunner told The Dispatch yesterday that she doesn't want to alarm voters using touch-screens but that she has received questions about them after a review of Ohio voting systems documented risks of tampering and error.

"People can have a paper ballot if they want it, and other people will feel fine voting on (the touch-screens)," Brunner said.

Fifty-seven of Ohio's 88 counties -- containing more than 70 percent of the state's registered voters -- use touch-screen machines as their primary voting system. All central Ohio counties use them except Madison.

Cuyahoga County, the state's largest, is changing completely to paper ballots in the primary.

Brunner has recommended that all Ohio counties switch to paper ballots in the fall election, if the legislature and Gov. Ted Strickland approve and funding is available.

Matthew Damschroder, Franklin County elections director and president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, has been critical of Brunner's proposals and said complying with Wednesday's directive will be difficult with the primary only two months away.

Damschroder also raised other potential issues, such as possible delays in reporting election results because counties will have to combine electronic and optical-scan counts from each precinct.

"Election officials are disappointed that this secretary of state chose to wait until the 62nd day before an election to make such a dramatic and unilateral overhaul of Ohio election rules," he said.

Janet Brenneman, Delaware County elections director, is concerned about the added cost for counties with touch-screens.

All counties already provide paper ballots for absentee and provisional voters. But Brunner is requiring that counties print at a minimum enough ballots to match 10 percent of the votes cast in each precinct during similar primaries.

The counties also are being ordered to provide secure ballot containers, as well as a private area for voters to mark their ballots.

Brunner told the counties to document any additional costs so she can seek federal money or other reimbursement "as funds may become available."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has argued that having voters mark paper ballots to be counted at a central location violates state and federal law requiring that voters be notified if they make a mistake marking a ballot.

That's typically done with a scanner in the precinct that spits out a ballot if too many or too few votes are cast in a race, allowing the voter to mark another ballot.

But Brunner said after consulting with the attorney general's office, she thinks the ACLU is "flat wrong" and that voters will be adequately educated to avoid unintended over-votes and under-votes -- problems that plagued the punch-card voting system that the electronic machines replaced.

Even so, Brunner told The Dispatch that said she is re- thinking her previous recommendation that no ballots be counted in the precincts, after activists argued that would eliminate a way to verify whether the final results are accurate.

She plans to meet with Strickland and legislative leaders Jan. 16 to discuss her proposals but has said any major changes and the necessary funding for them must be in place by mid-April for the Nov. 4 election.

House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, declined to comment yesterday on the directive.

House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus, called the move "a bold step" that will ensure the confidence of voters, and she said she thinks there is enough time to implement the change.

Beatty also said she may take a paper ballot herself.

"We've heard so many negative things about some of the touch-screens and if it's really recording what I'm touching," she said. "I think there is some sense of security when you say, 'Hand me a paper ballot.' "

Dispatch reporter Jim Siegel contributed to this story.

mniquette@dispatch.com