Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial
Right the first time Blackwell started out on the high road, promising to accept judge's ruling on ballots; now he's on the wrong track
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has bus ied himself since Thursday, sowing need less discord and confusion by appealing a federal judge's ruling declaring illegal Ohio's stance on the validity of certain provisional ballots.
Even if Ohio were not a pivotal state in the coming presidential election, Blackwell's maneuvering would come off as blatantly political. But with less than two weeks to go until Election Day, his moves can only be seen as contemptuous of would-be voters and potentially disastrous to local voting officials who must enforce the law.
Rather than actively opposing the ruling - which earlier this month Blackwell told Plain Dealer editors he would accept - Ohio's top election official should be seeing to it that all registered voters get the opportunity to cast a ballot, and to have that ballot count.
Blackwell's ire was raised last week when U.S. District Judge James Carr ruled that registered Ohio voters who show up at the wrong precinct can still vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election, as long as they're registered in the county in which they are attempting to vote.
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