Something shady this way comes.
Last week Ohio approved an election law which did not contain restrictive voter ID measures, but which would move the 2012 presidential primary from March to May, and reduce the early voting period from 35 days to 21 days. (GOP leaders seek to pass a voter ID law, which would require Ohioans to produce a valid drivers license, passport, or state ID when voting in person, later in the month.)
Before passing the election law, however, the House added a little somethin’-somethin’ that demonstrates just how committed to voter suppression the GOP is: The law would permit poll works to refuse to direct confused voters to their proper voting location.
From Think Progress,
Under the new language, a poll worker need not direct a voter to where they are eligible, adding that “it is the duty of the individual casting the ballot to ensure that the individual is casting that ballot in the correct precinct.”
Allowing poll workers to refuse to help those who are legitimately confused about where they should vote opens the door for increased voter suppression. As state Sen. Nina Turner (D) pointed out, “Voting in the wrong precinct led to over 14,000 registered voters statewide to lose their vote in 2008.” Rating the statement “true,” Politifact reports:[T]he second most common reason the ballot was not counted was because while the person was properly registered to vote in Ohio, they cast the ballot in the wrong county or precinct. In all, 14,335 such ballots were not counted for this reason, according to the Brunner report.
Of those 14,000-plus ballots, 3,423 were cast in Cuyahoga County, home to Turner’s district and by far the county with the most uncounted provisional ballots during the November 2008 elections due to wrong place filings.
As the Cleveland Plain Dealer pointed out, mixing up precincts “most often occurs” in “urban and impoverished areas of the state,” leading Turner to sarcastically suggest of Republicans, “I guess the loss of votes for some doesn’t matter.”
As for the voter ID law? It lost the support of Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted and has been put on temporary hold:
The Ohio state Senate was set to consider this week what critics are calling the most restrictive voter identification law in the country. The push for restrictive voter ID measures in the Buckeye state is part of a trend of similar legislation sweeping Republican-controlled legislatures across the country.
“I want to be perfectly clear, when I began working with the General Assembly to improve Ohio’s elections system it was never my intent to reject valid votes,” Husted said in a short statement posted on his official website.
“I would rather have no bill than one with a rigid photo identification provision that does little to protect against fraud and excludes legally registered voters’ ballots from counting,” Husted said.
[snip]
Six states — Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Wisconsin — have passed photo voter ID legislation this year alone. Similar measures have been considered in 33 states this year already.1
[snip]
In North Carolina, Democratic governor Bev Perdue vetoed voter ID legislation, arguing that it would “unnecessarily and unfairly disenfranchise many eligible and legitimate voters.”
Between GOP-sponsored voter suppression and unlimited corporate spending (thank you, Citizens United!), Election 2012 is shaping up to be a right clusterfuck.
Gird thine loins, comrades.
1 To get the scoop on voter suppression shenanigans in Florida, you should follow The Reid Report. Bookmark it. It’s one of the best blogs out there.
(H/T rikyrah!)
[via Think Progress; Talking Points Memo]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
My Truth Hurts
Voting is a right, not a financial transaction, which is a privilege. No ID required.
TooManyJens
Wow, Bill Clinton isn’t pulling any punches on this one:
(via TPM)
Mike in NC
This law will magically create hundreds, no thousands, of new jobs!
Talk about blatant illegality.
aisce
democrats should counter by pushing for a national automatic enrollment system upon turning eighteen. the only way you ever become disenrolled is if you commit a felony or whatever. if the republicans want to play disenfranchisement games, change the rules. register everybody. permanently. they do it in other countries.
this will never actually happen because politicians have perverse disincentives to jealously guard voter rolls and their own registration efforts, but if democrats were to actually push for this change publicly, i can’t imagine what kind of counterargument republicans could possibly make?
Jimperson Zibb (formerly Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
If these assholes get half a chance, you just know they’d bring back Jim Crow. But they aren’t racists, hell no, and it’s deeply hurtful and uncivil to viciously slander them as such. I’ll say it again: I never thought that once Bush was out of office, things would begin to get better, both materially and in atmosphere. But smart, reasonable, sane, competent guy took over, and the atmosphere is worse than it was in 2004. Anybody who says we haven’t worked through our racial problems as a country is either brainless or lying.
Southern Beale
Speaking of Ohio, have y’all seen the dashcam video of Rep. Robert Mecklenborg’s arrest?
Martin
Anyone with half a brain can get a fake ID. The only system that will meet the eventual GOP voter ID standards is your SS# tattooed on the outside of your left arm, prefaced by your party affiliation. Someone should just propose that and get it over with.
WyldPirate
Mike in NC @3:
Hyperbole, much?
Not saying it’s right or anything, but it seems (and we do not have the wording of the legislation in front of us) this portion of the law is not requiring the poll workers to direct them to the proper precinct–it doesn’t seem to mandate that they don’t direct them. In other words, there doesn’t seem to be anything frpm preventing the poll worker from helping a “lost” voter.
There is an easy solution to this problem. Post a map with precincts and polling stations located in every polling station. Let people look for themselves.
…but we then get “oh, what about the folks that can’t read?” whining. Horrors! More suppression!
At some point, people need to become adults and be able to make arrangement for themselves to do something that is so important as a citizen–voting. Perhaps like finding out where your precinct polling place is…or taking someone with you that CAN READ if you can’t.
TooManyJens
What are they even pretending their motivation is for not directing voters to the correct precinct? I mean, are they even bothering to disguise it any more or are they just coming out and saying “seriously, fuck voters.”
Xecky Gilchrist
Anyone with half a brain can get a fake ID.
If they outlaw voting, only outlaws will vote.
Pardon, couldn’t resist
WyldPirate
toomanyjens @9
It would seem that they have a problem with people voting at the wrong precinct if, as the quoted portions suggest, the biggest cause for votes not being counted was:
This is on the precinct workers if you ask me–or laziness/stupidity by the voters as either the precinct workers fucked up, or the voters, having moved out of the precinct they once lived in without changing their registration, simply went back to their old polling place out of confusion or laziness.
Suffern ACE
@11-Wyldepirate – or someone stayed in the same place but the lines had moved since they last voted. Happens when people don’t vote in every election.
Comrade Kevin
@Suffern ACE:
Indeed. I have lived in the same place for over 10 years, and my polling place has changed at least five times, among three different locations, in that period of time.
WyldPirate
Good point, Suffern Ace.
Martin
My polling place changes nearly every election. Fire station, retirement home, I’ve even voted in someone’s garage. But CA also provides alternate polling places, so I can usually vote at work. Give them my address and the machine gives me the appropriate ballot. Given all of these electronic voting machines, why does anyone need to vote at a specific place?
rikyrah
thanks for posting this ABL.
I wrote about this over at JJP and MOA.
……………………….
I worked for awhile for the local election board. As an employee who spent their days trying to make sure that our voter database was on point and up-to-date, I can’t even tell you how mad this made me when I first read it.
One of the things that is most important, if you want to ensure QUALITY ELECTIONS – is that the voter be able to cast a legal vote.
It is the RESPONSIBILITY of those who work for elections – TO DO EVERYTHING THAT THEY CAN TO GET THE VOTER TO THE RIGHT PLACE.
I have worked several Election Days. I have been the other person on the end of the line going through all sorts of tricks to find people in the system, so that I can point them in the right direction. The calls that frustrated me the most are when I was talking to a voter, and they said to me, ‘ I felt I was at the wrong place’, and I have to tell them over the phone that, yes, they were at the wrong place, and that, I’m sorry to tell them that there vote will not count.
This takes me back to PROVISIONAL VOTING AND WHY IT’S A SCAM. The most common reason why a Provision Vote is REJECTED/ELIMINATING THIS PERSON’S VOTE – is because they vote IN THE WRONG PRECINCT.
Sometimes, it can’t be helped.
But, the thought, the mere THOUGHT, that people would be DELIBERATELY DISENFRANCHISED LIKE THIS.
W-T-F do you mean that the poll workers DON’T HAVE TO TELL PEOPLE WHERE THE RIGHT PRECINCT IS?
W-T-F?
First of all, NOBODY is at those polling places for their health. ERRRRBODY there is COLLECTING A CHECK. So, the tax payers of OHIO, are PAYING people that CAN REFUSE TO POINT THEM IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION SO THAT THEY CAN EXERCISE THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE?
G-T-F-O-H!
I will also remind you another reason why this is utter BULLSHYT, and a DELIBERATE ATTEMPT AT VOTER SUPPRESSION:
We just finished the 2010 Census.
The REDISTRICTING MAPS, state by state, are being finalized as we speak.
Let me repeat that.
THE REDISTRICTING MAPS are being finalized as we speak.
This means, that entire state maps are being redrawn.
This means that EVERY DISTRICT, from the State Representative on up, has been looked at.
Those who do elections, are looking at the maps, street by street. You sit down with maps, and you take a precinct, and you go street by street, and map where the precincts are. Sometimes, the numbers of districts change. Sometimes, the boundaries of districts change. Sometimes, the boundaries and numbers are changed. This is done for EVERY level of political office in a state.
Now, if you live in podunkville, rural area, the likelihood where all you’ve gotten is a number change is about it.
But, urban areas are something quite different. You can literally have one side of a street voting in one precinct, and another side of the street in a separate precinct.
On top of this, election departments, like any other enterprise in government, is under the pressure to streamline precincts, meaning that they are under the pressure consolidate more groups of voters into larger precincts, the theory being that they will be more efficient. The bottom line of this, is that you have people, who might have voted for the past 2, 3 elections in the same place, but the Elections Department held off on consolidation, waiting for the 2010 Census numbers to come in, so that they won’t have to do it again for a few elections.
The place where I used to work for, when I worked for him, had 2800 precincts. Now, they are down to 1900 precincts, and I talked to former colleagues – they’re going to try and cut more with redistricting.
That’s a whole lot of people who have seen where they vote MOVE.
And, if they show up where they USED to vote, in the past elections..
and not where they NEED TO BE in 2012 – THEIR VOTE WILL NOT BE COUNTED.
It will be discarded.
And the people standing there, at the polling place – DON’T HAVE TO TELL THEM?
Tell me what this is, if it isn’t VOTER SUPPRESSION?
Comrade Kevin
@Martin: Electronic voting machines? I haven’t seen one in Santa Clara county in several years.
WyldPirate
@16
Two reasons it’s not: The law as it is written doesn’t say the poll worker CAN’T HELP. Reason 2_ The law as it is written places the responsibility on the voter to find the correct location.
Why is it voter suppression to require the voter to be proactive enough to find the proper polling place?
As a disclaimer, I’m with Martin in that I think that you should be able to vote at any polling place. In NC, I always vote early. there are three locations in my county. They simply give you the proper ballot for your precinct and you vote. They sort the counts out via the voting machines (ostensibly).
Suffern ACE
@Martin – My place remains the same, but now I get the special ballot from the special voting machine reserved for me and about 100 voters who someone wanted to claim or didn’t want as part of their district. Not even certain which level of representation has done that for me. If the poll worker hadn’t said “wait, he needs to go over there” I would have voted for the wrong officeholder as one of the poll workers was pointing me to the wrong machine.
Mike G
I predict a sudden upswelling of interest among Repukes for staffing polling places in urban neighborhoods. Refusing to redirect people to their correct polling place, or, “oops” redirecting them to another wrong location so they give up and go home. Gotta make sure only the “right people” get to vote. Because they’re such better Murkan patriots than us.
TooManyJens
@Mike G:
Exactly. If they’re going to the trouble to spell out in the law that poll workers don’t have to help voters find the right location, you’d better believe they’ve got a plan.
rikyrah
MikeG
on point.
completely on point
Martin
Yeah, reliably every election the same ones with the paper printout that you can review when you submit. Really damn convenient to vote at the office at lunch time the week before.
You walk up, give them your name and address, and they look you up in the county database and verify your information. They print out a piece of paper with a 4-digit number on it. You type that into the voting machine and it runs you through the correct ballot on the machine. The computer automatically records you as having voted in the Registrar database. I don’t know how many locations they do this, but anyone who lives in the county can vote on the same machines.
rikyrah
WyldPirate:
IF the voter comes up to a polling place, and doesn’t have their name on that precincts rolls, and asks the person there, OVERSEEING THE POLLING PLACE TO FIND OUT WHERE THEY SHOULD BE –
that is taking responsibility for finding out.
that the person standing there CAN LEGALLY REFUSE THEM is what makes it VOTER SUPPRESSION.
it boggles the mind, folks trying to excuse this obvious VOTER SUPPRESSION.
which is all that it is.
Mike in NC
No shit. Explain that to WyldMoron. In the county where I live, where you vote depends on if it’s a primary or a regular election. Imagine if the poll workers refused to talk to you. WTF? I’ve been a registered voter since 1972 and never heard of such bullshit in any of the many states in which I lived.
WyldPirate
@24 Rikrah
The problem seems to be more with how Ohio is doing their elections at a particular precinct.
Martin right above you outlines how he can vote at multiple places in Cali. It is similar for me in NC. You tell them where you live. They print out the proper fucking ballot. No problem.
this is a fucking stupid statement. I’m not excusing voter supression. This law ISN”T VOTER SUPRESSION and I’m not excusing voter suppression.
There are requirements to be able to do all sorts of things in this world. You have to get a license to drive. IT’s a requirement. You have to register to vote. You have to pay taxes. Different places have different rules. Citizenship has responsibilities. If someone is too fucking pig-ignorant or too frigging lazy to find out where they need to vote before hand, I don’t have much sympathy for them.
Now should it be made as easy as possible for citizens to vote? Yes, i think so. It is dead easy in NC to vote, but there are reasons for these laws. Why should someone’s vote count if they vote in the wrong precinct for say a councilman or a US Congressional representative in a district they don’t live in?
BruceFromOhio
…right under the post title, “Block the Vote: GOP-Sponsored Voter Suppression in Ohio“.
Maybe you should bring someone with you who can read post titles, so you know what the fuck you are spouting about this round.
WyldPirate
Mike in NC @25:
Fuck you Mike.
Does the state have to PERSONALLY TELL YOU where to register your goddamned vehicle or get a driver’s license? Does it have to PERSONALLY tell you where in the fuck the courthouse is? No, you take the initiative to find out for yourself.
I’m not from Ohio, but perhaps they are making that sort of information PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE at the polling place.
It seems as if Ohio is using an antiquated system anyway. Why in the fuck to you even get a ballot if you’re not on the goddamned voting role in the first place (which is why they trashed some people’s votes according to the quoted sections)?
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@BruceFromOhio #27:
All this means is that the GOP in NC is dragging its feet. Don’t worry, come 2012, when the Godly Galtian Paradise descends upon us and Americans vote out all those godless dirty fucking hippies, NC will follow suit along with the rest of the states ensuring that personal responsibility returns to voting.
And we’ll get infinite monies too with all the personal responsibility the GOP will institute widespread on the state level.
WyldPirate
@27 Bruce in Ohio:
You can just fuck the hell on off, Bruce. I made it clear in a paragraph above where in the fuck I lived and that it was different than Ohio and I used Martin’s case in Cali as another example. I know where the article is talking about the alleged voter suppression you smart-assed, non-reading piece of shit.
Comrade Kevin
@WyldPirate:
So, you’re arguing in favor of something, without actually knowing, at all, how it might affect anything.
Bravo, you dumb fuck.
El Cid
It’s outrageous how so many states let black and foreign-looking people vote. I don’t know what’s happened to this country. I want my country back.
WyldPirate
@Comarade Kevin…
Maybe you aren’t familiar with the definition of the word “perhaps”.
There are these things called dictionaries. Try one out you fucking idiot.
Took all of five seconds to find this page at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. They have public libraries in Cleveland still, I ASSUME (Unless the GOP has closed them down). They even have these new-fangled things called phones and phone books with numbers in them for Boards of Election.
themann1086
WyldPirate, you’re a moran. Seriously, even my GOP counterparts at the polling place I volunteer at would balk at this. People who mistakenly go to the wrong polling place (on a work day!) are usually frazzled and upset that the time they set aside out of their busy day now might not be enough. Having the people at not!their polling place help them figure out where they need to go and how to get there calms them down and they go on their way to vote asap.
Oh, and not all states have systems like CA and elsewhere. Arguing that this bill isn’t voter suppression because it wouldn’t matter in those states… hell, care to wish for a pony while you’re at it?
BruceFromOhio
Heh. Likewise.
Caz
Yeah, I can definitely see how this would hurt the liberals – most confused voters are democrats, after all. The more adept voters, the ones who would not be so easily confused, will vote for the non-socialist candidate, so they won’t need any guidance about what area to walk to to cast their vote.
You have a very valid concern here! Any laws that might make it harder to figure out how to cast your vote properly are necessarily going to affect the dumber voters more so than the smarter ones, so that will yield far fewer democrat votes obviously.
It looks like we finally agree on something!!
Oh, and I’m sure you’ve heard about the recent poll done by the Society for the Assurance that Smart Voters’ Votes Count more than the Idiotic Voters Votes, or SASVVCIVV, showed that 75% of all idiots in America vote democrat. It also showed that of the 25% of the idiots that vote republican, 100% of them were simply idiotic democrats that were confused by all the confusing voter station stuff like filling in boxes with No. 2 pencils and being literate enough to read the ballots properly.
Hmm, I just realized something else! I am now sure that the progressives keep fucking up our education system to create more idiots in our society, thereby yielding more democrat votes. It’s a catch-22 though: the more idiots there are, the more attempted democrat votes will be cast; however, as the number of idiots grows, so does the confusion about all the confusing stuff in the voting booths, which leads the idiots who want to vote democrat actually voting republican due to the confusion cleverly being created by the republicans.
So it appears you can have your idiots, or you can have your democrat votes, but you can’t have both! So you idiots must choose! More idiots, or more proper votes?? I don’t blame you for opting for the idiots, because that is your only chance of retaining your socialist, muslim, foreign-born, anti-semitic, anti-American king Barack Hussein Obama!
This blog is so much fun. I wonder who will win this time around in 2012 – the idiots or the assholes. Should be a close election! God bless you idiots and god bless the United States of America!
ABL
Great comment rikyrah and I wholeheartedly agree with Mike:
WyldPirate
themann1086
You would have a point if they simply turned people away from the polls in Ohio. They don’t (and you don’t have a point either you asshole).
People can cast these things called provisional ballots in Ohio. They even made it a bit easier for them to cast these types of ballots…
Ohio Legislative Service Commission: Am. Sub. H.B. 194 see page 14
The also made a lot of changes to the provisional ballot requirements making easier and less troublesome to cast a provisional vote. (see page 13 of the link for that).
The bill also did this according to the Columbus Dispatch:
WyldPirate
themann1086 @34:
I wasn’t making that argument you non-reading idiot. I said that Ohio appeared to have an antiquated system of voting compared to other places.
I don’t think it is voter suppression requiring people to exhibit the initiative to find out where the fuck their polling place is. It’s not an onerous requirement and the state makes a provisional ballot available anyway, so it’s not like they are being turned away from the polls and not being allowed to cast a ballot if they fucked up and showed up at the wrong polling place and didn’t change their name or address.
And if they are too goddamned lazy, ignorant or stupid to find the correct polling place, they likely haven’t put a millisecond of time into informing themselves about the candidates or the issues. Maybe they shouldn’t be voting in that case if it means so little to them.
Yutsano
This statement is extremely disturbing.
Johnny Coelacanth
Yes, but suffrage is a right, not a privilege. If someone makes it harder for you to speak freely, or assemble peacefully, or own a firearm, it is not your responsibility to learn constitutional law before you can say an injustice has been done. In this case, it doesn’t matter that the law says it’s the voter’s responsibility, because the law is wrong (IANAL).
It’s wrong because it adds extra difficulty to the act of voting. Rather, it gives political operatives the chance to sabotage the act of voting by refusing to help voters who need more information. That’s what it seems like you’re defending, here.
rachel
Is WyldPirate arguing that a vote suppression tactic proposed in Ohio is not really a vote suppression tactic because it is not happening where he lives? Is that what his comments boil down to?
Ija
I haven’t been around for a while, so I forgot if WyldPirate is the committed Obama hater or the lawyer who defend every stupid decision coming down from SCOTUS and calling everybody else idiots and ignorant about the law. Either way, this is probably one of the most moronic statement I have read here. You live in a democracy, not your right to decide who gets to vote or not.
Thoughtcrime
WyldePirate @34
You might want to take a look at what Kay had to say about how wonderful provisional ballots are before you continue defending this attempt at voter suppression:
https://balloon-juice.com/2011/06/28/now-that-hes-admitted-it-and-hes-the-secretary-of-state-doesnt-he-have-to-do-something-to-prevent-it/
WyldPirate
@rachel:
No I said this above:
Bruce is an idiot who took what I said out of context.
WyldPirate
@Ija:
You would have a point if anyone was being prevented from voting by what I said. I don’t have any control over that as an individual citizen. I just happen to believe that one should show a little initiative and at least look into where they are supposed to show up and vote at. If you can’t do that, you probably don’t know who or what the fuck you are voting for in the first place as that takes far more effort.
Not caring enough to even find out where you need to go to exercise your voting rights is just a bare step above someone bitching about an elected official that you didn’t even bother to cast a ballot for or against in an election. Sure you have a First Amendment right to bitch, but you neglected to exercise your right to influence the choice.
Now I would agree that it would be voter suppression if the poll workers were required to NOT PROVIDE ASSISTANCE when asked. That’s not the case here. Many of the workers will help voluntarily as they are not prohibited from helping.
What Ohio needs to do is get their fucking databases squared away so they can simply print out the proper ballot when the name and address are given.
Somehow, I think if the people in question of having their voting rights “suppressed”–and I don’t think anyone is in this case as the law actually had some good changes in it despite this shitty one (I posted a detailed synopsis of it above)– were the actual “low-information-white-trash-Fox-Viewer”-voters, this wouldn’t be an issue here on BJ. Instead there would be lots of cheering.
WyldPirate
@Johnny Coelacanth:
How many “difficulties” is the state required to remove for voting rights to be exercised? Should everyone be given a personal reminder? A personal valet to hold their umbrella on a rainy election day? A free ride to the polls? Those are “difficulties” that prevent people from voting if they choose to use them as an excuse.
Ohio has web sites that you can log onto and find a polling place in minutes. Probably have free computer access in many libraries, They definitely have reference librarians that can answer those questions. One can call on the board of elections in their county and ASK.
I suppose there are hundreds of political operatives that are volunteering as poll workers that intend to descend upon heavily minority precincts in order to deprive minorities of their rights by not being REQUIRED to direct someone to the right polling place. They must be members of the same hordes of PAID POSTERS some of the BJ whackaloons claim to show up here to give Obama hell about something.
WyldPirate
@Thoughtcrime:
Yes, and if you go to this link and read p.12-14, you will see that an effort was made to try to streamline the provisional vote process.
Is it perfect? No, but if you read the entire bill synopsis, it seems like Ohio is grappling with a lot of problems about getting their databases in order so that they can have a more modern system to verify voters are in the right place and issue them the proper ballots.
rachel
Back to the pie filter with you.
Console
The fuck does all this database talk have to do with the proposed law? Is there some hugely taxing problem of overworked poll workers not being able to help people get to the proper precincts? Why weaken a law that helps voters? If you can’t come up with a defensible reason, then how is said law not voter supression?
Stop defending stupid shit.
Chinn Romney
Seems mean-spirited, but if someone can’t figure out where they’re supposed to vote how can you trust them to make informed decisions once they get inside the booth?
Darcy Pennell
Rikyrah @ 16:
I completely agree with your larger point but have to challenge your statement about poll workers:
I’ve worked five elections as a poll worker and I couldn’t disagree more. No one is there for the paycheck. It’s a long, hard day doing what is essentially menial customer service for very low pay. Last fall I was there 15 hours, the lines were long, the voters were angry about the long lines, and I had one 15 minute break the entire day. If I were there for the money I’d be an idiot. I have a job, a good one, from which I take vacation time to work the polls.
You’re right though; I’m not there for my health either. I do it because I want to serve democracy and my fellow citizens. From what I know of the others at my precinct I believe the same is true of them. The idea of the law allowing me as a poll worker to refuse to provide the best service I possibly can to the voters — that is repulsive to me.
kay
The rule is about voter intent. Here’s the OSU election site on the Ohio case where conservatives threw out provisional ballots that were ENTERED into the wrong precinct.
I would suggest that you don’t understand the mechanics of provisional balloting. The voter is given 4 pages of forms to fill out, and directed to a central table. He or she then turns the ballot in, but it must be recorded at the proper precinct (polling places are not precincts: polling places CONTAIN precincts). In the Ohio 2010 case, the pollworker entered the ballots in the wrong precinct, so be careful before you assume this was VOTER error. It wasn’t.
Conservatives in Ohio want a SCOTUS ruling that voter intent doesn’t matter. That’s the ultimate goal here.
Voter intent has been a long running battle between liberals and conservatives (well, some liberals, obviously, not you) because voting is unique in that it’s a “black box”. That’s what makes it different than other governmental functions. We don’t identify the voter on the ballot. “Black box”. We can’t ask the voter what his or her intent was. In fact, if you do identify yourself on a ballot, it’s spoiled and counted out. A court or board of elections has to determine voter intent. That’s why they’re always peering at the contested ballots on TV? Remember that?
You’ll recall that voter intent was the inquiry in Florida 2000 and again in Minnesota (Al Franken).
Had your side prevailed in Minnesota, Wyld Pirate, Al Franken wouldn’t be a Senator.
Anyway, the Ohio case linked is on it’s way to the SCOTUS. Conservatives seek to end any inquiry into voter intent in close elections.
One more thing. California and North Carolina are not good examples. Both states vote (primarily) for one Party. Generally, those states don’t have close elections. Ohio has close elections all the time, because the state is 50/50, as does Florida. The contested cases come out of swing states. I would suggest that voters in CA and NC simply don’t know how effective or fair their process is, because national contested cases don’t come out of those states. CA and NC process isn’t tested.
Close elections come out of swing states. Ohio process is tested all the time. I’ll wait for a 23 vote difference in NC (like we get in Ohio) and you’ll find out how well your process holds up under scrutiny. Don’t assume it’s fair or working well. Florida voters thought they had a fair, efficient process until it was tested in 2000. Oops! Not so good.
kay
Yeah, they “streamlined” the provisional ballot process, all right. They eliminated 4 ways for the ballot to be verified and counted. VERY efficient. Now they can throw provisionals in the trash without a federal judge checking their work. It will certainly save the RNC on legal fees paid to Federalist Society lawyers who work very, very hard to count OUT votes.
They’re just demons on efficiency, those Ohio conservatives.
kay
It isn’t about polling location. It’s about precincts inside polling locations. Many polling places have two or more precincts inside a location. That’s what happened in Ohio in 2010. Right location, wrong table.
Oh, I’ll give up now, I promise, on citing specifics to persuade people. In a way, it doesn’t matter. There are enough people that care a lot about voting to make up for those who are more cavalier, and those who are more cavalier are unlikely to get involved at the ground level anyway. Until your vote isn’t counted :)
Ben Cisco
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Love my guv for this, and she is fighting an uphill battle against some fairly committed (or at the very least, certifiable) morons.
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Can’t wait to see what the convention brings next year. The stoopid, it will be CONCENTRATED.
Kathleen
At my polling place in Cincinnati I believe 2 new precincts were added and it seemed to create some confusion when I was voting. In that scenario, it appeared that the poll workers were directing folks to the correct precinct to vote. I know I double checked to make sure I was at the right precinct.
Flugelhorn
I love this. A Voter ID law was just passed in Rhode Island. Introduced by Sen. Harold Metts (D) (He is a black man) and voted in by an overwhelmingly (D) Senate and House.
Yup. The GOP is out to get you all. Blinders, blinders.