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OUR VIEW: Great legacy: Enlow and Enders protected electoral process, kept it clean, scandal-free
June 12, 2009
Like her Democratic Party counterpart, Glenda Enders, who retired after 30 years of service, Republican Lois Enlow, who is also retiring from her post as deputy director of the Portage County Board of Elections after 11 years, set the bar high when it came to running elections.
Both women, partisan outside the office, but so professional inside, dedicated themselves to running clean, efficient elections and leave an important legacy for those who follow them. The message at the Board of Elections, for years, has been "Park your politics at the door, do not bring them inside," which has nurtured a working relationship far different from that which has tainted the running of elections in other counties where some staff members reportedly barely speak with one another because of the partisan atmosphere that prevails.
The tradition of non-partisanship in Portage County at the Board of Elections is long indeed and was also upheld by the predecessors of Mrs. Enders and Mrs. Enlow. Gerry Lewis, the Republican who mentored Mrs. Enlow, was as professional and as nonpartisan as could be. Mrs. Enders learned her craft in a similar school.
Besides keeping partisan feelings out of the mechanics of elections, the running of them has not gotten any easier as the years have gone on. With volunteerism waning and people's schedules busier, it has become more difficult to recruit poll workers even with the modest stipend offered. The digital age has taken over with all the fits and starts that new technology usually brings to the fore. Mandated by the state and federal government to computerize elections after the hanging chad snafu in southern Florida in 2000, our Board of Elections, partly because of support from then Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, opted for the Diebold system, which has functioned well in Portage County despite some criticism from computer experts who claim it can be easily invaded and hacked.
Whereas the former secretary of state sometimes made life more difficult by his taking on a partisan tone, the current one, Jennifer Brunner, an expert in elections law and a former judge, sometimes has made life in county boards of election at little more nerve-wracking than might be necessary by utilizing her expertise so much it has become at times micro-management from Columbus. That may have been appropriate for a county like Cuyahoga, but probably has been overkill in saner places like Portage County.
Despite the various pressures, our Portage County Board of Elections soldiers on and has performed magnificently under Mrs. Enlow and Mrs. Enders. We salute both ladies, who in their alternating roles of being director and deputy director, have kept the ship steady and on course.
What a powerful example for their successors who follow.
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