Victory for Voters in Ohio

In another stinging rebuke of attempts to limit the number of voters in Ohio, the Secretary of State was denied his ability to cast aside the agreement signed with the NEOCH from 2010.  This is the third time that our agreement on counting all provisional ballots has withstood a challenge.  We hope that the state of Ohio will stop challenging this agreement and instead focus on getting as many people as possible to vote and then figuring out a way to assure that all those who take the time to show up to vote have those votes counted. Here is a good background of the case and its political implications (this is a left leaning blog, but they have a good description of the issue).

"Finally, despite Defendants' [Secretary of State and State of Ohio] contention to the contrary, the Decree's orders are final and binding...The Court, alternatively, concludes that Defendants' substantive argument in favor of vacating the Decree on the basis of its orders conflicting with Ohio law's requirements also fails on the merits."--from the decision released July 9, 2012 by Judge Alegnon Marbley.

This is the third strike for the State of Ohio.  The court stuck the attempts by the state to shop for a better venue in the Ohio Supreme Court.  The law was tested in Cincinnati when the local board of elections wanted to ignore our agreement and throw in the trash the 800 ballots that were cast in the wrong precinct due to poll worker error.   We joined the lawsuit against the Hamilton County Board of Elections and won thus overturning a juvenile court judicial race.  We hope that they will not appeal this ruling, but will accept that the courts have spoken.  If a poll worker misdirects you to the wrong polling place, your ballot should count for everyone voting with a provisional ballot.  Our side has asked for an expansion of the agreement since the State attempted to open it back up.  The court has not ruled on our request for expanded coverage.  We hope that Secretary of State Husted will issue his directive to the local boards of elections to end this confusion over provisional ballots.  He should encourage additional training and education for poll workers to make sure that this is not an issue in November. 

Thanks to the court for again affirming that an agreement signed with the state of Ohio, no matter if the political figures change is binding and will be respected.   For voters the easiest way to avoid any problems is to vote by mail or use the Golden week to vote and register at the same time. We have a great deal of information on our voting blog here.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Updated: check out our voting blog with information on the cut to election hours for early voters because Husted made a partician decision last week.