I haven't seen a good discussion of this question so far. Under what circumstances does it become reasonable to actually push for a revote in some Ohio counties?
I've been pulling together info in the Ohio Irregularities dkos wiki, and there's just a lot of bits of information, that if pulled together, make a pretty compelling case:
- In several Democratic counties, voters were flyered and push-polled and told that their precinct locations had changed when they weren't. I know I have read this several times, but I can't find a source. Does anyone have one?
- The GOP pushed for provisional ballots to not count if cast at the wrong precinct, while the Dems wanted them to be valid at any precinct in a county. There are already reports of provisional ballots being thrown out for not being at the right precinct.
- Democratic precincts were given less voting machines per voter than Republican precincts. Here is evidence and a graph for Franklin County. This made longer lines more likely for Democratic voters.
- There are several different reports of longer lines at Democratic precincts.
You can reduce this down to one scenario. A voter goes to vote. He goes to a precinct that may or may not be the right one due to information they've heard. The voter stays in line for several hours. The voter might give up for a while. Or the voter may find out hours later, after the polls close, that they are at the wrong precinct, and can't go to another. Or the voter might file a provisional ballot that won't count because they are at the wrong place.
That voter is much more likely to be a Kerry supporter than a Bush supporter. This diary has a link to a study that shows Kerry was cost 45,000 votes in Ohio due to these policies.
This is a violation of voting rights, is it not? Since it holds Kerry voters to a different standard than Bush voters, on the basis of fact? Why couldn't this be used to ask for a revote in some of these counties?
Here is the the other way of asking it. There has to be some standard that can be met to require a revote. What is that standard, and can it be argued that the situation in Ohio meets that standard?
What does it take to lay the groundwork for getting a revote, and are we doing that work? Common Cause is filing several lawsuits, could any of them lead to this?