Things are looking better in Ohio, folks.
Judge allows provisional voting at wrong polling place
According to the Columbus Dispatch (subscription may be required), "A federal judge yesterday ordered the state to change its directive for handling provisional ballots, after ruling it violates federal law by not allowing voters to cast such ballots if they are in the wrong precinct."
The full article is below.
Judge allows provisional voting at wrong polling place
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Mark Niquette
The Columbus Dispatch
A federal judge yesterday ordered the state to change its directive for handling provisional ballots, after ruling it violates federal law by not allowing voters to cast such ballots if they are in the wrong precinct.
U.S. District Judge James G. Carr in Toledo ordered Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to file a new directive with the court by 4 p.m. Monday that complies with the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA.
The law is intended to ensure voters have the right to cast a provisional ballot, and Blackwell's directive that only such ballots cast in a voter's home precinct will count violates that intent, the judge said.
"I am confident that, once properly instructed, Ohio's election officials will have little difficulty in implementing HAVA's provisional voting procedures," Carr wrote in his 38-page ruling.
Blackwell couldn't be immediately reached for a response or to to say whether he will appeal the decision.
The Ohio Democratic Party, which was one of the groups that sued Blackwell to challenge the directive on grounds it would cost thousands of people the right to vote, hailed the ruling.
"We're really happy the judge accepted our argument that this directive was completely deficient," said Rory P. Callahan, an attorney representing the party.
Provisional ballots are cast by voters who have moved and not updated their registration in time for the election or by voters who believe they are registered but do not show up on the rolls when they go to vote because of a mistake.