Ohio Provisional Ballot Ruling Reversed by Federal Appeals Court

[Eurobabe]

This is not good news OHIO!!!!

CINCINNATI - A federal appeals court on Saturday ruled to reverse a lower court's ruling that Ohio voters could cast provisional ballots on Election Day anywhere in the county in which they are registered.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a provisional ballot cast outside a voter's home precinct isn't valid, agreeing with Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. :mad:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041023/ap_on_el_pr/ohio_ballots&cid=694&ncid=716

[Rainbowreflect]

1. I hope they are appealing this!

I am already sick of this bushit.

[BQueen]

3. No appeal -avoiding confusion

***Democrats said Saturday they were disappointed by the ruling but were ready to move on with election preparations.

"To avoid any confusion, we are not going to appeal this ruling," David Sullivan, voter protection coordinator for the Ohio Democratic Party, said in a statement. "That way we can ensure that voters and election officials understand that voters must be in the proper polling place before casting a vote." ***

I remember hearing about a hotline to get registration "and precinct" information -- so they probably anticipated this -- which is encouraging, if you think about it...

[lfs5]

2. Wonder who appointed the judge!

[VolcanoJen]

4. Outrageous.

Absolutely outrageous.

Earlier today, a reporter on MSNBC said that up to 10% of all Ohio votes cast are expected to be provisional. The reporter went on to say that if provisional ballots are allowed, it could take days to know which candidate won Ohio, as current Ohio law allows ten days from election day for the Board of Elections to verify each provisional ballot.

I'd rather wait 10 days to allow the validity of the provisional ballots than to not count or allow them at all.

Time to deliver our army of lawyers. No kidding.

[FatSlob]

5. I agree with this ruling. It puts Ohio in line with the other states and.

prevents disenfranchisement. If a voter were able to go willy-nilly and vote wherever the hell he wanted, then you'd have stuff like a Norwood voter casting a ballot in Colerain and having this voter be disenfranchised from voting for State Representative, school board, tax issues, city councils, township trustees etc. Blackwell is right, this time. What do we want? Voters to only have their votes count for President and damn all the down-ballot issues? Grow up. People need to vote in the right place, otherwise, they are disenfranchised from the down-ballot issues and races. This whole "let people vote wherever the hell they want to" mentality is juvenile. Is it too much to ask that somebody GOES TO THE CORRECT PLACE?! Get with it, people. Do you have any idea how stupid we're looking on this?