Many of you have read the diary
Action Alert: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct. 1st - Vote Early. This is an important diary but many Kossacks, rightly so, doubted the diarist claim because it was not based on facts that could be verified. Honestly, I don't know if any of the Ohio County BOE's actually removed people from the registration rolls in the last two months. I do know that many people will be voting provisionally in this election. In Franklin County OH alone, 150,000 people on the voter registration roll will have to vote on a provisional ballot. I am writing this diary to show you the facts that back up this claim and also to let you know what you can do about it.
Please follow me below the fold:
In Franklin County Ohio, registered voters received
a newsletter in the mail in the last days of September. This newsletter is to inform the voters of the new Voter ID laws and includes an absentee ballot request form.
A post-office snafu delayed the delivery of voter information and absentee-ballot applications to thousands of Franklin County residents.
Most registered voters received the state-required mailing Friday or Saturday, more than a week after an electionsboard vendor submitted them for delivery.
Director Matthew Damschroder said the agency paid nearly $283,000 for first-class delivery of 740,000 newsletters but was told they got mixed in with third-class mail.
O.K. - so we know that they were mailed in Franklin county OH. From this same article..
The mailing, required by the state legislature as part of election reforms that took effect this spring, tells voters about a new law requiring them to show identification at the polls on Nov. 7.
we now know that ALL registered Ohioans are to receive this notice. Cuyahoga, Delaware and Franklin County Ohio received the same newsletter but it appears that other counties just received a postcard. I spoke to someone at the Ohio Democratic Headquarters today and they were using left over HAVA money to pay for this mailing.
Also from this article...
The state law doesn't allow information to be forwarded to voters who've moved from the address at which they registered. The third-class rate was cheaper, but Damschroder said the county would have had to pay postage for about 100,000 newsletters it expects to be returned.
You see, in Franklin county alone, they are expecting 100,000 newsletters to be returned. Meanwhile, I just heard back from the Ohio Democratic Party and the number of newsletters returned was actually 150,000. So what happens to the 150,000 registered voters in Franklin County that had their newsletters returned to the Ohio BOE? Well...
RC Section 3503.19(C)(1)© addresses this issue:
If the mail is returned to the board, it shall investigate and cause the notification to be delivered to the correct address.
(2) If, after investigating as required under division (C)(1) of this section, the board is unable to verify the voter's correct address, it shall cause the voter's name in the official registration list and in the poll list or signature pollbook to be marked to indicate that the voter's notification was returned to the board.
At the first election at which a voter whose name has been so marked appears to vote, the voter shall be required to provide identification to the election officials and to vote by provisional ballot . . . .
Please keep in mind that this is just one county. I have no idea how many people will be "marked" to vote provisionally in all the other counties. If a person has moved, they have to show up to the correct polling location where they currently live and show identification that has their current address. Even then, I don't know if their vote will be counted.
One more thing, please keep in mind that Franklin County purged over 114k people on June 20, 2005.
The (Franklin) County resumed regular purging of its voter list only after the 2004 election, and on June 20, 2005 removed approximately 114,000 ineligible individuals from its voter registration list. The 2005 purge brings the voter registration total well below the 2000 voting age population in the county.
So, in 2004, Franklin County had 845,720 voters but only 533,575 people voted in the 2004 election. In June 2005, 114,000 people were removed from the registration roll which brings us down to 731,720. Now, there are 150.000 more voters who will only be able to cast a provisional ballot, that brings it down to 581,720. The registration roll in Franklin County is looking mighty lean. What I do need is the actual number of registered voters in Franklin County but the Ohio SOS told me today that they do not have those numbers ready because they are still processing registrations.
Franklin County is important because we have a close race (OH-15) between republican incumbent, Deborah Pryce and democratic candidate Mary Jo Kilroy. I am tired of having to put up with Blackwell's shenanigans. Please, please, please help me get Jennifer Brunner for Ohio Secretary of State elected. If you have the time, go to her website and make phone calls. If you have a dime, please donate it to her campaign. Our local newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, endorsed Jennifer Brunner last Sunday. You can also visit Russ Feingold's website and vote for Jennifer Brunner. If she wins, he will donate money to her campaign. Please send Russ my love.