homestead exemption

I tried to submit some helpful comments to the auditor's office about the statewide homestead exemption information on their website. After writing out my comments on the e-comment form on the auditor's website and pushing "submit", nothing happened. Tried again...nothing happened. So I called the auditor's office and wasn't too happy with the response.
My concerns are several: The website says you have to bring the forms to the courthouse, not mail them (contradicted by information in the FAQ about mailing and postmark dates). But it doesn't say that a picture ID is required... I'm going to have to make another 35 mile round trip to Perrysville to get my mother's ID and bring it in. The second problem is the confusion between the 2 1/2 percent Homestead Rollback (HRB) on the auditor's tax itemiztion vs. the Homestead Exemption (HOM). People will confuse these and think they are already enrolled, missing out and not applying for the automatic, over 65 exemption.
The response from "Amy" at the auditor's office (third person I was redirected to) was that this was a state mandated program, that people are calling in if they are confused and they are answering their questions about whether they are enrolled already or not, and that they addressed the issue of bringing in a picture ID with an article in the News Journal.
I'll just say from a common sense point of view that there will be a lot of people missing the Oct. 1 deadline for these reasons and I don't think Richland County is doing its best with this. Just the fact that everyone over the age of 65 living in their own home in Richland County must drive to the courthouse is pretty incredible. It was up to the county how to implement this. Crawford County allows you to mail in the application with a copy of your photo ID... very clearly laid out on their website. Ashland, Knox, Morrow, and Huron Counties have nothing on their sites about applying for this...they have the kind of static websites that never get updated with current information.