I have no idea if the following was deliberate or inadvertent. But it's annoying.
I'm not wearing my tres fashionable tinfoil hat today, so I don't necessarily subscribe that my personal confusing experience in the quest of a mail in ballot is part of voter suppression efforts against groups more likely to vote the Democratic
ticket.
But head below the elegant squiggle for a short diary, a snapshot of what's happened...
it does contribute to the confusion about the new law, the climate in Ohio in a tiny way.
In my Ohio apartment complex, a subsidized building for persons with disabilities, many of my neighbors are of a different politics than myself. There are also many who have similar views to my own. I want all my neighbors to be able to vote, and have their votes counted…
I went through the process of requesting a mail in ballot, in case there’s a blizzard on election day or something, that would make me rolling my power wheelchair five minutes to my polling place problematic. So the impetus for the request is tied to disability, tied to being a person with a disability. Before I decided to do that I got a weird yellow form from the Secretary of State (had his seal and name on the envelope and “Secretary of State” as the sender…) advising that my precinct may have moved and I may not be shown as a registered voter or have a different precinct. I checked, by phone, with the Lorain County board of elections. They verified that 1. I showed as registered. and two. my precinct had not changed. They also advised they were sending me a mail in ballot request directly. I provided a copy of my state ID as requested and sent back the mail in ballot request timely. As of yet I have not received my mail in ballot. Others have. I hope we can/have all our votes count.
If I don’t get the mail in ballot…
Mine will have to be a provisional ballot, cast in person at my nearby precinct on election day which will not get counted until after the election.
It also appears that a friend of mine who just moved to Ohio and was able to register at the BMV on time had her registration request “lost” at the BMV.
I don’t like conspiracy theories, so I’m not espousing one.
I also don’t like opportunities to exercise one’s right to vote going missing.