Ohio papers reported today that attorneys may take their case requiring that Ohio voters provide proof of identification to cast an early absentee ballot, to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order last night staying a lower court ruling from last week that put the voter ID requirement on hold. Thus, county election boards that were telling voters last week that they didn't need ID for their absentee ballots, are now telling them the opposite. I knew the Repubs couldn't leave this alone and that they would delay an appeal to max out the potential chaos. The culprit (intervener) is Jim Petro, current Ohio AG and the loser to Blackwell in the Ohio Repub Gov. primary. Petro said he felt he had a duty to defend the constitutionality of legally enacted laws by the General Assembly. What a numnut. Wait for it, maybe he'll break into a patriotic verson of GBA. Officially, the intervention was not with Blackwell's approval, but you have to be skeptical. Regardless, chaos and bullying are the name of the Repubs game in Ohio in 2006.
I haven't seen any diaries on this, which is surprising. If a diary already exists, I'll pull this one off.
The 6th Cir. 3-judge panel is supposed to issue an opinion on this, but I haven't seen anything yet. Tomorrow, or Wednesday maybe. Subodh Chandra (Dem AG candidate, lost to Mark Dann in the primary) represents one of the groups that sued to challenge the ID requirement in the first place. Chandra will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. I really wish Subodh would have won the Ohio AG primary. Give him time, he's got big-time written all over him. Anyway, Chandra represents SEIU Union 1199 and notes that the court's decision is guaranteed to create confusion for voters and poll workers alike.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the order does reqire that county election boards preserve absentee ballots as-is. Another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday (day after Halloween, oh the irony) in U.S. District Court in Columbus. Hey, maybe Jon Stewart can do a Daily Show tie-in to shed a national spotlight on this crud. Feel free to bury Stewart with e-mail.
Just last week, the U.S. District Court issued an order Thursday granting a TRO to block the requirement that voters had to provide an accepted form of ID to get an absentee ballot. That requirement was part of the "no-fault" (this title brought to you by the same numnuts that brought you the "healthy forests" and "clean skies" initiatives) absentee voter guidelines. The lower court had ruled that county election boards were not uniformly enforcing the ID provisions, and that THOUSANDS of voters were submitting the wrong number from their driver's license with their absentee ballot, meaning those ballots would not be counted. That's THOUSANDS of votes that may already be worthless.
My motto in Ohio this year: Embrace the Tornado.