http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/ohio-early-voting-update.html
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Ohio Early Voting Update
Last week, we discussed the early voting windows in various battleground states, but we fell victim to the artificial distinction between "early voting" and "in-person absentee voting" and misstated the window. It's important enough to correct the record. Ohio early voting (in-person absentee) runs from September 30 through November 3.
The bottom line is that as of early 2006, Ohio residents can cast ballots early, whatever the label applied to that action is. The significance of October 6, a call to the Secretary of State's office confirmed, is that is Ohio's deadline for voter registration. From Sept 30-Oct 6, early voting is a one-stop shop for unregistered voters. Beginning October 7, no-excuse-needed, in-person absentee voting is ongoing right through November 3, but only for registered voters. None of the ballots are counted until the polls close on Election Day.
Additionally, depending on the Ohio county, there may be alternate sites for voting. In smaller counties, the board of elections office might suffice, but in the larger counties such as Franklin and Cuyahoga, alternate sites to accommodate large numbers of voters will be available. For Ohio voters, the thing to do is check the Secretary of State's website and click on your individiual county to get the location.
I don't recall seeing this discussed much, but it seems to be a critical thing for Ohio.
If you can newly register people and GET THEM TO VOTE RIGHT THEN from Sep 30-Oct 6, that is a vote that is signed, sealed, and delivered. This gets around issues of people being stuck at work and having trouble waiting in line on election day. Not only that, if there's bullshit vote caging type disenfranchisement going on, it will likely be identified at that moment, with at least the chance to fix it or turn in a provisional ballot that has a much higher chance of being counted on election day.
I would think (but don't know) that it would be much harder for Republicans to challenge or disenfranchise a vote that has already been delivered, as opposed to challenging people at the polls and trying to prevent them voting in the first place.
And then after that, there's almost a one month window for registered voters to vote early by absentee (in person). This seems to me to be the way to go, at it gets away from any chance for people getting stuck in lines in Cleveland waiting until 4AM to vote.
Obama's GOTV ground game in Ohio HAS to put heavy emphasis on this, I'd think. Are they? Ohio voters, please make people aware of all this.
I had read earlier that Republicans were making an effort to put up a legal challenge to the law that provides for this kind of early voting. Of course they don't want higher turnout, it doesn't favor them. Anyone know anything about how their legal challenge is going?
This means that actual voting in Ohio begins in a little over two weeks.
TWO WEEKS.
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