Residents React to Challenges of Voter Registration Status (OHIO)

[VaLabor]

http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281795990879007.php


WARREN — Eight of the nearly 450 Trumbull County registered voters whose status was challenged by Republicans showed up for scheduled hearings at the county board of elections.

None of them was happy.

"I feel that my rights are being stepped upon," said Allen Hupp, 50, a Democrat who plans to vote Tuesday. "I've been voting since I was 18."

The basis for all these challenges was that a piece of mail sent from the board of elections was returned as undeliverable.

SNIP

Reasons for returns

Board officials cited several reasons why a valid voter's mail might be returned. For example, there could have been mistakes on the part of the post office or the board of election or the voter could be a member of the military, college student or post office box user. In Hupp's case, there may have been an error when paperwork was filled out to change his address in July at a Department of Motor Vehicles office.

Another of the voters who arrived for a hearing Friday, Gene Coudriet, said he has been at the same address in Vienna since 1996. "I'm upset that somebody is challenging my right to vote and they say I don't live where I live at," he said.

Julia Simmons, of Howland, married last year and moved from one address to another in Howland. The 50-year-old Trumbull County Children Services supervisor, who voted Republican in 2000, said she was "furious" that her right to vote was being challenged.

[Straight Shooter]

1. Only eight of 450?

No wonder this country is in trouble.

I guess the hearing being on a Friday, it's hard for people to take off work. But, still, only eight?

[VaLabor]

4. uhh

Straight shooter -

The reason only 8 made it is because the addresses are largely wrong or the mailboxes are somehow inaccessible, etc. -- the reason they are on the list in the first place is that they never got the mailing from the GOP -- the notice for the hearing went to the same damn address -- so, OF COURSE, most people on the list are unlikely to get notice of the hearing. The first mailing didn't work, so why should the second? And the fact that the second worked for at least eight people shows just how bad of a proxy "undeliverable" mail is for whether a person exists or not.

[Florida_Geek]

2. and she will STILL vote Bush because God told her.

ulia Simmons, of Howland, married last year and moved from one address to another in Howland. The 50-year-old Trumbull County Children Services supervisor, who voted Republican in 2000, said she was "furious" that her right to vote was being challenged.

[w4rma]

7. It doesn't say that she will still vote Bush. (nt)

[rhino47]

3. Go ahead repigs and piss off the voters

* totally pissed off alot of people in boardman/vienna .The rally there was a total disaster.Reporters and bus loads of high school kids were locked out.Standing outside they could neither go in or go back to their cars.

[salin]

5. another reason for returned mail could be that it was sent

registered mail. Not quite the same as regular mail being returned "non-deliverable."

[cthrumatrix]

11. BINGO BINGO Bingo

[salin]

6. I wouldn't be surprised if THIS issue loses Ohio for bush.

It was already close (trending for Kerry?) - but I have read repeats of this same story (scenario) from THREE different locals... in one the republican members of the election board were angry at the state party who were sending these "lists" of challenges to local folks who when questioned had no information to back up WHY they believed the folks in question should be challenged. They threw out all of the challenges and, I believe, refused to hear any more.

My bet is that this is happening all over the state - and that more folks, esp independents and moderate republicans will react very negatively in the voting booth.

It would be electoral poetic justice if they loose more (regular) voters over these tactics than the number of new registrants that they tried to challenge.

[AndyTiedye]

9. With This Procecdure, Most Will Actually Be Disenfranchised

They won't know it until they try to vote on Election Day,
so they'll get stuck with provisional ballots which will
get thrown away.

This is more likely to cost US Ohio.

[Occulus]

8. WAIT A MOMENT!!!

If the Pubs are using a single piece of undeliverable mail as the sole basis for issuing these challenges, doesn't that mean that these people can simply bring one or more pieces of mail addressed to them with a (very) recent postmark to prove they live there?

As a postal worker, I can state with utter certainty that there are a multitude of reasons why a piece of someone's mail might be marked as undeliverable or "ANK" (Address Not Known) or otherwise "return to sender", chiefest among these reasons being a mistake in the recipient's address on the part of the sender, provided of course that the recipient does indeed live there and the mailpiece is not being returned because they do not live there.

In other words, actual lack of residency is not the only reason mail gets returned. The Pub challengers would dearly love for people to believe otherwise.

Furthermore, if people move, their mail gets forwarded for some time (several months or a year; I'm not certain which since I don't work in CFS (Computerized Forwarding Service)), but after that, gets a FOE (Forwarding Order Expired) stamped on it and is returned to the sender. The intended recipient would never know that that mailpiece didn't get to them if the sender makes no effort to notify them.

My advice to Ohio voters: bring a mailpiece to the polls with a Friday-Monday postmark. In fact, bring several, and watch the person challenging the votes simply get laughed at by the poll workers.

[mediaman007]

10. This was on NPR's "ATC" yesterday...

these people were really pissed!

The election board (2 dems/2 repugs) were at each others' throats! This doesn't sound too good for American democracy this year.

I'm glad that we're standing up to the thugs this year.

[fidgeting wildly]

12. NPR report yesterday was really good.

One woman said that the mail was returned as "undeliverable" because she's a Democrat and refuses all mail from the Republican Party. Another said she had been living in the same precinct for 35 years!

One of the women made an excellent point, wondering why our soldiers are fighting for the Iraqis' right to vote while over here, Republicans are fighting to PREVENT Americans from voting.

Maybe I'm just naive, but I can't believe the depths to which the Pigs will stoop to try and steal another one for their boy king. It's disgusting. This country is barely recognizable as the America I believed I was living in as a child. :puke:

[Upfront]

13. This Stuff Hurts Them More Then They Know

I live in Michigan and recently ran off a good man who is running for township office because I now would not even think of voting for anyone who calls themselves Republican. I told him why, and he was shocked. He walked by Kerry signs to come up my driveway. I felt a little bad later but I am over it. Go Kerry!!!!