The Columbus Dispatch announced
that voters must provide I.D. on absentee ballots.
The 6 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order last night (Sunday, 29 Oct 2006) staying a lowercourt ruling from last week that had put the ID provision on hold.
There will be a live discussion live on-line at the Columbus Dispatch. You can write them right now and ask a question before the live event or during it. It is very important that the cumbersome I.D. requirement be removed. Please follow me below the fold.
Most of my research in how this will effect the 2006 election has been focused in Franklin County. In Franklin County, Ohio,
approximately 5,000 absentee ballots (out of 100,000) may not be counted because the voter put the wrong license number on their ballot. An Ohio driver's license has two numbers. One over their picture (on the top right side) and one on the left side. If you see the
link, you will see a picture of an Ohio Driver's license. Sorry, I don't know how to post pictures.
The other problem with the new voter I.D. rules is for the voters that vote on election day (November 7th). In Franklin County Ohio, registered voters received a newsletter in the mail in the last days of September. This newsletter is to inform the voters of the new Voter ID laws and includes an absentee ballot request form.
A post-office snafu delayed the delivery of voter information and absentee-ballot applications to thousands of Franklin County residents.
Most registered voters received the state-required mailing Friday or Saturday, more than a week after an elections board vendor submitted them for delivery. Director Matthew Damschroder said the agency paid nearly $283,000 for first-class delivery of 740,000 newsletters but was told they got mixed in with third-class mail.
Also from this article...
The state law doesn't allow information to be forwarded to voters who've moved from the address at which they registered. The third-class rate was cheaper, but Damschroder said the county would have had to pay postage for about 100,000 newsletters it expects to be returned.
The actual number of newsletters returned in Franklin County alone was 150,000 (out of 760K registered voters). So what happens to the 150,000 registered voters in Franklin County that had their newsletters returned to the Ohio BOE? Well...
For the returned 60-day notice, the signature book will be printed with a STOP sign to the left of the box for the voter's signature. If the voter shows a valid ID that matches the name and address in the signature book, the voter can vote a regular ballot. If the address does not match, the voter must vote a provisional ballot.
Please keep in mind that this is just one county. I have no idea how many people will be "marked" to vote provisionally in all the other counties. If a person has moved, they have to show up to the correct polling location where they currently live and show identification that has their current address. Obviously, if their new polling location differs from the one they are currently listed in, the will be forced to cast a provisional ballot because their name will not be on the registration list.
Please go here and join the live discussion at noon.
Also: From Renee in Ohio's diary (see link in 1st comment):
Dear folks concerned about potential Election Day chaos
The lawyers managing the lawsuit challenging the Ohio Voter ID law - Subodh Chandra, Caroline Gentry, & Ritchey Hollenbaugh - are trying to quickly gather even more evidence that will help with the suit. We need this information as soon as possible. If you think you might have first-hand information about the different ways this law is being interpreted and applied across Ohio, we ask you to send an email to:
VotingProblems@gmail.com.