Is the Lucas County Board of Elections trying to influence Toledo voters with big bold type and capital letters?
Question No. 20 on the Lucas County ballot is for a new Toledo Public Schools levy to raise $13.3 million with a levy averaging 4.9 mills for 10 years.
The lettering in the sample ballot on the Board of Elections' Web site really jumps out at you:
Local Tea Party activist John McAvoy thinks the ballot was printed that way to influence voters to support he levy.
"Ballots should be neutral in nature and the language should support the issue. Use of Graphics, fonts, CAPS, or methods to draw attention to any detail of the language must not be approved. This ballot should be destroyed, and new ballot must be printed immediately," McAvoy said.
The extra-large type in the school levy question may have been a mistake and may have been corrected before the start of early-voting today. But McAvoy's point about the capital letters is one that he will have to bring up before the elections board.
Ron Rothenbuhler, chairman of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said he voted early today and used a paper ballot and didn't notice the exaggerated lettering.
"I have not heard of the issue before now," he said, about 11:45 a.m.
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