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Last-Minute Ohio Directive Could Trash Legal Votes And Impact The Election
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/last-minute-ohio-directive-could-trash-legal-votes-and-impact-election
A last-minute directive issued by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted could invalidate legal provisional ballots. Ohio is widely viewed as the most critical state for both presidential campaigns and — with some polls showing a close race — the 11th-hour move could swing the entire election.
The directive, issued Friday, lays out the requirements for submitting a provisional ballot. The directive includes a form which puts the burden on the voter to correctly record the form of ID provided to election officials. Husted also instructed election officials that if the form is not filled out correctly by a voter, the ballot should not be counted.
According to a lawsuit filed late Friday by voting rights advocates, this is “contrary to a court decision on provisional ballots a week ago and contrary to statements made by attorneys for Husted at an Oct. 24 court hearing .”
Indeed, it also appears directly contrary to Ohio law. From the lawsuit :
Ohio Rev. Code § 3505.181(B)(6) provides that, once a voter casting a provisional ballot proffers identification, “the appropriate local election official shall record the type of identification provided, the social security number information, the fact that the affirmation was executed, or the fact that the individual declined to execute such an affirmation and include that information with the transmission of the ballot . . . .” (Emphasis added.)
14 replies
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Husted must go but those votes must count.
What is being done?
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/ohios-provisional-ballot-order-the-biggest-legal-story-of-the-weekend/264498/
With just a few dozen hours left before polls open on Election Day, here is a candidate for the most important election-law story of the weekend -- a story likely to cross over into the general political debate Sunday through Monday. This early copy from the Associated Press offered a hint:
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Voter advocates are criticizing an order by Ohio's elections chief dealing with the casting of provisional ballots. Advocates are saying on Saturday that the order by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted late Friday wrongly puts the burden of recording the form of ID used on a provisional ballot on voters, not pollworkers ....
Here's what happened. On Thursday, voting-rights advocates filed an "emergency motion" with a federal trial judge seeking his reassurance that provisional ballots in Ohio will be judged by the standard he endorsed (and Ohio reportedly agreed to) in a recent consent decree. That standard, the plaintiffs say, is "that a provisional-ballot form that has incomplete or improperly completed information regarding the type of identification proffered by a voter should be counted pursuant" to Ohio law, which, they say, makes the poll worker responsible for taking down the information. Here's a link to that motion.
Ohio has not yet responded to it with a filing in court -- the state's deadline is Monday. But it was a full day after this motion was filed that the secretary of state, at 6 p.m. on the Friday before the election, issued his contrary directive, the text of which you can read in this timely piece by Judd Legum. The issuance of the directive in turn prompted lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case to go back to U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley with an even more urgent request, filed late Friday evening:
This new Directive makes an affirmative change to the previous provisional ballot counting standard, beyond what was required to comply with this Court's and the Sixth Circuit's recent orders. Instead, contrary to this Court's October 26, 2012 decision, the Secretary's representations to this Court on October 24, 2012, and the Constitution, the Secretary is now ordering that county boards of election must reject provisional ballots when the identification information contained in Step 2 of the ballot affirmation form 12-B is incomplete.
With just a few dozen hours left before polls open on Election Day, here is a candidate for the most important election-law story of the weekend -- a story likely to cross over into the general political debate Sunday through Monday. This early copy from the Associated Press offered a hint:
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Voter advocates are criticizing an order by Ohio's elections chief dealing with the casting of provisional ballots. Advocates are saying on Saturday that the order by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted late Friday wrongly puts the burden of recording the form of ID used on a provisional ballot on voters, not pollworkers ....
Here's what happened. On Thursday, voting-rights advocates filed an "emergency motion" with a federal trial judge seeking his reassurance that provisional ballots in Ohio will be judged by the standard he endorsed (and Ohio reportedly agreed to) in a recent consent decree. That standard, the plaintiffs say, is "that a provisional-ballot form that has incomplete or improperly completed information regarding the type of identification proffered by a voter should be counted pursuant" to Ohio law, which, they say, makes the poll worker responsible for taking down the information. Here's a link to that motion.
Ohio has not yet responded to it with a filing in court -- the state's deadline is Monday. But it was a full day after this motion was filed that the secretary of state, at 6 p.m. on the Friday before the election, issued his contrary directive, the text of which you can read in this timely piece by Judd Legum. The issuance of the directive in turn prompted lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case to go back to U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley with an even more urgent request, filed late Friday evening:
This new Directive makes an affirmative change to the previous provisional ballot counting standard, beyond what was required to comply with this Court's and the Sixth Circuit's recent orders. Instead, contrary to this Court's October 26, 2012 decision, the Secretary's representations to this Court on October 24, 2012, and the Constitution, the Secretary is now ordering that county boards of election must reject provisional ballots when the identification information contained in Step 2 of the ballot affirmation form 12-B is incomplete.
