VICTORY!!

Judge Rules to Keep NEOCH Agreement in Place!!

Judge Algenon Marbley ruled on Friday against the two Republican challengers who sued to overturn the NEOCH settlement with the State of Ohio in the voting ID case. The federal judge made a few changes, but ordered the provisional ballots counted even if there was poll worker error. In dispute is a U.S. Congressional race in Central Ohio and two State House races, and how the provisional ballots in those races will be counted. NEOCH temporarily settled the case against Secretary of State Brunner and the state of Ohio before the election providing two directives backed by the court to standardize the counting of provisional ballots in all 88 counties. In the District 15 race between Republican Steve Stivers and Mary Jo Kilroy, the Democrat, there are only 500 votes separating the two with over 27,000 provisional ballots to count. The Republican voters, who sued after the election, do not want the 1,000 provisional ballots counted in which the poll worker did not complete the outside envelope correctly.

The only down side is that the Judge put off the counting until November 28 (the day after Thanksgiving) to start counting in order to give time to the U.S. Court of Appeals to rule. I am sure that the Appeals Court justices will love to rule on this case after a great Thanksgiving dinner. We trust the court to rule for allowing legitimate voters to cast a ballot. Imagine waiting in a long line at the drive-thru window at Wendy's, and you finally get up to the front of the line to put in your order. Then you drive around to the pay window, and they tell you, "Sorry, you will get no food today, because our order clerk took your order wrong." This is what the Republican operatives are asking for except in the most important thing a citizen is entrusted with: voting for president of the United States. "You did nothing wrong, but the person who took your ballot screwed up, and so you are out of luck for four years. Have a great day, and come again."

What judge in their right mind would side with people trying to disenfranchise voters? We shall see.

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