Chock it up to advancing technology and lowering costs: some counties in Ohio are considering printing their own absentee ballots. They estimate sufficient cost savings so that the new systems will pay for themselves in just two election cycles. And counties hope to avoid the delays that caused problems in this year’s election.

This one seems like a no-brainer. Most everyone knows how to handle laser printers these days. The only glitch in the ointment might be the software necessary to produce an optically-scannable ballot. I assume that companies like ES&S, which is the one that will lose the printing contract, may produce software for formatting and printing ballots. Hopefully these programmers will read the various blogs and research reports and avoid the ballot design problems we’ve seen in recent elections.

Read the story in the Beacon Journal