3rd member of Ohio elections board quits

A third member of the embattled elections board of Ohio's most populous county quit Tuesday under pressure from the state's top elections official, leaving Ohio's Republican chairman as the lone holdout.

Sally Florkiewicz, the board's other Republican, accused Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, of playing politics in demanding the four board members step down.

"Cuyahoga County has become an early turf war in the 2008 presidential election," Florkiewicz said in a news release.

Robert Bennett, the elections board chairman and head of the state GOP, is the only board member not to bow out. The two Democratic board members resigned last week.

Brunner said it was unfortunate it took a removal complaint to force Florkiewicz's resignation. She had no comment on Florkiewicz's allegations of a political agenda, spokesman Jeff Ortega said.

Brunner and others have noted problems in recent elections in the county, which includes all of Cleveland and has 1 million registered voters.

Difficulties included unsecured keys to ballot storage areas; shoddy checking of voter names, addresses and signatures; failure to make sure the number of voters matched the number of votes cast; and inadequate poll worker training.

Last May's primary, the first attempt at electronic voting in the county, was marred by absent or poorly trained poll workers, lost vote-holding computer cards and a polling place that opened hours late.

Brunner's removal complaint said the board ignored warnings that a recount of the 2004 presidential election, in which a narrow win in Ohio helped President Bush edge Sen. John Kerry, was being conducted in violation of state rules.

Two board employees were convicted of rigging the recount _ not to change the outcome, but to avoid a more thorough review _ and were sentenced to 18 months in prison.