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Secretary of State John Husted is advocating on-line voting. Regrettably, politics are in play whenever it comes to anything related to voting. Democrats want to improve access to the voting polls, while Republicans voice concern about the problems that come with greater access.

Rep. Michael Stinziano, D-Columbus, stated, “I’ve been told that there are folks in the Senate concerned that it [on-line voting] would hurt some of their members’ ability to get re-elected” because college students would take advantage of it. A statement from Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin County Republic Party, evidences that Republicans see increased voter access  as a threat: “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban—read African-American—voter-turnout machine.”  (Columbus Dispatch, 12/15/2013.)

Why not make voting as simple and as convenient as possible? Why not have on-line voting?  We bank on-line, we invest on-line, we regularly send sensitive financial and personal information over the internet. We do all these things on-line because we have faith in the security systems provided by on-line vendors. Surely, the government can do as well. I presume Husted has devised security systems for on-line voting.

For those who say that we shouldn’t venture into on-line voting because of voter fraud, take a look at what Husted has to say. In a report he released earlier this the year, Husted found that of the 5.63 million votes cast in Ohio during the 2012 presidential election, there were only 135 possible voter fraud cases.

A bedrock right, voting is too important to be subject to political haggling.