Some Further Clarity on Provisional Ballots

NEOCH won again in our attempts to count as many provisional ballots as possible. We want to assure that every legitimate voter that takes the time to vote will have their ballot count.  The federal court expanded the directive to include anyone who is misdirected will have their provisional ballot counted not just those without the correct identification.  So, this means that any voter who is directed by the trained poll worker to the wrong precinct when casting a provisional ballot their ballot will still count.  Judge Algenon Marbley said:

“To disenfranchise citizens whose only error was to rely on poll worker error seems fundamentally unfair,” Marbley said on Wednesday October 24 in a decision after the hearing.

Here is the comments by the attorney representing NEOCH in the lawsuit against the State of Ohio. 

In our Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, et al. v. Husted case today (and it's companion related case), after a hearing, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbus issued from the bench the injunction we were seeking that prevents Secretary of State Husted from discarding the thousands of provisional votes where poll workers have misdirected voters to the wrong polling place. The Secretary and Attorney General continue to advocate for such blatant vote suppression, claiming somehow it is burdensome for poll workers and boards of elections to count those votes.

Voters are much more likely to be misdirected in Democratic urban areas, because these are areas with more polling places, more precincts, and more poll workers – and therefore more confusion on election day.

Shame on Secretary Husted and Attorney General DeWine. They are losing almost every round. Again, today's ruling will save thousands of legitimate votes from being discarded just because government workers blundered.

We will continue to work to get homeless voters to the polling place.  We will also work to protect people's right to vote on election day, and we will watch the counting of provisional ballots on November 17 throughout Ohio. 

Brian Davis