Slashdot Mirror
Judge Says Ohio Must Allow Provisional Ballots
expriest writes "A Federal Judge has held that the state of Ohio must provide a provisional ballot to persons who claim to be registered, but whose names do not appear on the voter rolls. This decision reverses a policy by Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who was only allowing the provisional ballots in limited circumstances. Furthermore, the Judge put some teeth behind his ruling, allowing persons denied provisional ballot to sue the election official so doing for money damages."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Guardian
-jim
especially the suing part. last time in that florida fiasco some voters were told they had to have a driver's liscence to vote. an obvious lie that hopefully only some first time votors would believe.
at least in ohio the election officials will think twice before f*cking with someone's right to vote
Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of State who got shot down here is working hard to be the new Kathrine Harris. He previously attempted to tear up voter registrations because they were printed on the wrong thickness of paper. And of course who could forget this absentee ballot, which for some reason omitted the Democratic candidates.
Wow you're ignorant. Voting is what those of us in the legal profession call a "fundamental right," that means that the state must prove they are fulfilling the most compelling interest and have considered every posible alternative before constructing any barriers whatsoever. That's not silly liberalism, it's a basic Constitutional right.
Its about time someone put Blackwell in his place. IIRC, Blackwell is also for throwing out ballots that were cast in improper precincts.
Usually, if a voter came to the wrong precinct, they could just vote a provisional ballot and then have any levies that they weren't eligible to vote for be not counted. Now Blackwell wants the entire ballot to be thrown out. Not to mention he didn't accept voter registration forms that were correctly filled out, but weren't on the proper paper stock.
I'm not going to say this is partisanship on Blackwell's part, but let it be known that Ohio is run by the Republicans at every level of government.
Well Hello Massive Voter Fraud!
This has nothing to do with voter registration. This decision says that if you ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE IN OHIO but accidently show up at the wrong precinct, you can still vote at that precinct. It also says that if you ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE IN OHIO, but the precinct mistakingly says you are not, you still we be allowed to vote. Your provisional ballot will then be checked against a central voter registrar to make sure you ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE IN OHIO. If your name is not on the master list, you're SOL. In other words, you need to stop getting your talking points from Rush Limbaugh.
But as usual, this seems to be opening the door for possible fraud, since it seems you could only verify that each person voted once after the fact, unless there is some kind of centralized electronic database of whether or not each registered voter in Ohio voted or not.
What's to stop me from crossing the state and going into to every poll and state "Oh, my! I am in the wrong place. Please let me vote, anyway because my bunions hurt and I could not possibly wait in line again"? If there is a reasonable way to verify people can only vote once, and a reasonable chance that someone who tries to vote twice will be convicted of voter fraud (that is illegal isn't it?), then this seems fair. If the provisional ballots are different and identifyable then I guess this would be true.
Any time the voting procedure is changed these days I'm suspicious that it is driven by the desire to disenfranchise voters of one party or inapproapriately enfranchise those of the other. Maybe it's all the hype, but it seems everyone is going out of their way to cheat.
Regardless of how it falls, I hope it's by a big enough margin that we don't see a repeat of 2000, because it's a good bet the state legislatures haven't learned the lessons of Florida in 2000.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
I live in Ohio too, and I didn't have to worry about not getting to vote this year, or last year, or the year before, or the year before ... no problems ... no worries.
I strongly believe there ought to be some kind of IQ test and lower IQ limit to the voting process. There are plenty of people in society who can't, for instance, add or subtract 2 numbers under 20 without a calculator. I'm quite generous in the standard, say anyone scoring a 69 IQ or below would not be allowed to cast a vote.
In the past, requiring pre-registration and requiring people to vote only at their assigned polling place served that purpose to a limited degree. This ruling is going to help those in society who are cognitively challenged vote, and I'm not convinced that's such a good thing.
My affinity for hyperbole knows no bounds
how is that other western nations manage just fine without pre-registration?
or is usa some 3rd world country that doesn't know who even should be able to vote(being citizens)? sorry for asking..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
#1 Ohio is a very republican state.
#2 I live in one of the most republican counties.
I submit that your statement #2 leads to your false conclusion on your statement #1. It may be true that Republicans NEED to win Ohio and there are many Republican strongholds in Ohio (where you obviously reside) - but there are also many Democratic strongholds in Ohio (where i reside) which are equally determined to turn out the vote. If Ohio was so "very republican", it would not be the crucial swing state that it is. The bottom line is - VOTE - for your candidate that you believe in - and we'll all see in a few weeks - and hopefully not much longer.
it doesn't matter how smart you are when shit like this happens
this may help stupid people to vote (which i have nothing against) but more importantly it stops corrupt election officials from derailing (even more so) the democratic process.
Honestly, this is not 'Insightful' nor 'Extra Insightful' ... I wouldn't have replied but for the excessive modding ...
The judge's ruling still requires you to be properly registered in order for your vote to be counted -- this does nothing to prevent, discourage or otherwise thwart the deliberate removal of your name from the list of registered voters.
The story referenced is about a disgruntled ex-employee of a company called 'Voters Outreach of America'. They were in Nevada to accept voter registration forms. We don't know the whole story, but the key witness, Eric Russell, has discredited himself; He admits that if he had been paid, he probably wouldn't have talked. Not only that, but he took the documents to the FBI, and then left before actually filing a complaint. He's also been described as a disgruntled employee who was fired and displayed a violent temper.
Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that Mr. Russell was pissed that he got fired, so he stashed a few Dem registration forms in his jacket, and walked out. Now, he tears them up, and concocts a brilliant story about how the forms were in the trash, systematically torn up by someone who works for 'Voters Outreach of America.' Then, at the FBI office, he's cooled off enough to realized that he could get in serious trouble, and beats it out of there. Like I said, we really don't know what happened here.
Furthermore, intellegence is a factor here too. Why would anyone trust their voter registration to an organization that's moving through the state, and hiring legions of temporary workers? Why not just register with the local government, as most people do? At least then you'll know who you're dealing with.
My affinity for hyperbole knows no bounds
... So I guess I'm going to get to vote Republican TWICE!!!
Thanks, Liberal Federal Judges!!!! And remember, kiddies... Voter Fraud works both ways!
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
Slashdot isn't what you'd call the pinacle of journalistic integrity, dude. *shrug*
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
I'd be satisfied if the intelligence test simply required people to demonstrate competence at punching a hole in a pre-perforated card.
is that politicians run the entire voting process, from registration down to the actual polling on election day. How can an election ever be considered fair when partisian elements control the process from the very top?
We have an independent agency here in Canada called, appropriately enough, Elections Canada. Their sole purpose is to organize and execute the federal election process (each province maintains a similar independent agency to monitor provincial elections). The system has been refined over many years to eliminate any partisan influence to the point that even the returning officer in each polling station cannot vote in the election to ensure impartiality. The point being that our Attorney General, or whoever, would never have the ability to grab a stack of registration forms and toss them in the trash, it just doesn't work that way.
Ever since the microscope was focused on the election system in the U.S. since the Floridian Fiasco I am still shocked to see how blatantly political it is. The system we use in Canada is not perfect, no system is, (in fact it is quite antiquated as we still use paper and pen for all elections) but when the chief electorial officer has a stake in the outcome of an election it just beggars belief that anyone would accept that the election to follow would be as fair as possible.
What many in the world consider to be the heart of democracy deserves better than this.
According to ABC (Oct, 13.-17.) , Kerry 50%, Bush 47%, Margin of error 3.5%
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
You know, there is a reason for universal suffrage.
"Black people don't have the education and the cultural background for democracy"
"Women are mentally far to unstable to vote."
"Only working people may vote, because only they contribute to the society."
Yes, there may be more intelligent voters and dumber voters, but who gets to decide, which ones are the right ones? And who will ascertain that the exlusion won't be partisan or arbitary like in the "cited" cases in the past?
But most importantly, what gives one the right to exclude those people to vote on their own rulers?
If you think that your electoral constituency is too dumb, don't disenfranchise them, educate them.
In a democracy, you may not get the government you need or want. But at least, you get the government you deserve.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
Otherwise you are just asking for voter fraud.
Provisional ballots are probably one of the worst ideas ever. They seem tailor made to insure fraud does occur.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Since we were never intended to be a democracy, but a representative republic, your ideas on why there is universal sufferage fall apart. Read the federalist papers some time. Universal sufferage is not the wonderful thing we've all been indoctrinated to believe it is.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Read your consitution...there is NO right to vote. The method for selecting state electors is left completely in the hands of the state legislators. I don't know how the Ohio state legislature has set up the rules, but if they say the paper has to be polka-dotted, then guess what...it does. There are amendments that prevent disenfranchisement based on race and sex, but there is NO right to vote for president (Hell, US Senators weren't popularly elected until the 17th amendment).
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/REGISTRATIO N_SCAM?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEF AULT
DEFIANCE, Ohio (AP) -- Elections officials knew something was wrong when they got voter registration cards for Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, Michael Jordan and George Foreman.
They notified the Defiance County sheriff, who arrested Chad Staton on Monday on a felony charge of submitting phony voter registration forms. Investigators also were looking into allegations that he was paid with cocaine in exchange for his efforts.
Staton, 22, had fraudulently filled out more than 100 voter registration forms, Sheriff David Westrick said.
"Staton was to be paid for each registration form that he could get citizens to fill out," the sheriff said. "However, Staton himself filled out the registrations and returned them to the woman who hired him from Toledo."
Staton was charged with false registration and was released without bond pending arraignment.
No other charges had been filed in the case Monday, authorities said.
According to Westrick, the NAACP's National Voter Fund had submitted the false registrations to the elections board in Cleveland. George Forbes, Cleveland chapter president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Monday that the voter fund operates independently from his chapter.
Officers said they interviewed a Toledo woman who claimed that she had paid Staton with cocaine for the registrations. Officers said they obtained a search warrant and took voter registrations and drug paraphernalia from her home.
The woman claimed she had been recruited by a Cleveland man to obtain voter registrations, Westrick said.