Ohio and the Hanging "Chads" of 2008

We Better Hope Ohio is Not Close this Year...

NEOCH never did settle our lawsuit over the state's requirement to force people to show identification if they want to vote in person. After our case, the Supreme Court supported Indiana's voting identification law. Our issue was in 2006 that there is no such thing as free identification in Ohio (as there is in Indiana), and many homeless people have a hard time maintaining identification. We wanted to do everything we can to avoid having homeless people have to vote with a provisional ballot. In 2006, our suit was against Kenneth Blackwell, then Secretary of State, and we eventually agreed to a compromise for the November 2006 statewide election. All of us thought with a new Secretary of State, and the luxury of time we would reach a permanent compromise. We could not reach this compromise, and so Thursday October 23, 2008, we go back to court.

This week our lawyers have been interviewing members of Boards of Elections across the state, and we have found that there is no standard for counting the provisional ballots in Ohio. This is the hanging "chads" for the 2008 election. If the election is close in Ohio, we are in big trouble. Some counties are disqualifying large numbers of potential voters, and others are using a liberal definition of verifying that the voter is a legitimate voter. While there are rules, they are not being enforced, and it is the wild wild west out in the field. Every board is doing whatever they want, and if the election comes down to provisional ballots we better wake up Justice Thomas and Stevens for another December late night decision on the presidential election. I hope that we can settle this lawsuit as we did in 2006 before the election or we have to hope that all the Ohio races are blowouts.

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.