Ohio Secretary of State Blocks New Voter Registrations

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Reuben Halper <reuben () spacelab net>
Date: September 28, 2004 3:09:05 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Ohio Secretary of State Blocks New Voter Registrations

Ohio Secretary of State Blocks New Voter Registrations
  By Jim Bebbington and Laura Bischoff
  Dayton Daily News

  Tuesday 28 September 2004

Boards of elections told to strictly follow two provisions.

  DAYTON - Voters-rights advocates are criticizing two recent decisions 
by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell that they say will 
unfairly limit some people's ability to vote Nov. 2.

  Blackwell's office has told county boards of elections to follow 
strictly two provisions in Ohio election law:
	• 	 One requires Ohio voter registration cards be printed on thick, 
80-pound stock paper.


	• 	The other ordered boards to strictly interpret the rules regarding 
provisional ballots, the ones cast by voters who move before the 
election but are still registered in Ohio.

  The paper-stock issue is frustrating Montgomery County Board of 
Elections officials, who have a backlog of registrations to complete. 
If they get an Ohio voter registration card on paper thinner than 
required, they are mailing a new card out to the voter. But if they 
still have the backlog by the registration deadline, Oct. 4, voters 
will not have another chance to get their correct paperwork in, said 
Steve Harsman, deputy director of the Montgomery County board.

  "There is just no reason to use 80-pound paper," Harsman said.

  In Montgomery County there is a backlog of around 4,000 
registrations, Harsman said. A few hundred could be affected by this 
provision, he said.

  Cuyahoga County board of elections officials are ignoring the edict 
because they have already had an avalanche of new registrations 
submitted on forms printed on newsprint in The (Cleveland) Plain 
Dealer.

  "We don't have a micrometer at each desk to check the weight of the 
paper," said Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County Board.

  Blackwell's office has given the Cuyahoga board a special 
dispensation to accept the newsprint registration forms. The 
requirement is because the forms are designed to be mailed like 
post-cards and must be thick enough to survive mechanical sorters at 
the U.S. Post Office, according to Blackwell's spokesman Carlo LoParo.

  "Our directive stands and it is specifically in place to protect new 
registrants to make sure the forms are not destroyed," LoParo said.

  Confusing the matter further is a national registration form 
available off the Internet at the federal Elections Assistance Agency. 
That form must be accepted by Ohio boards regardless of what it is 
printed on, Blackwell has said.

  The heavy-weight paper was a requirement when the cards were kept for 
years, were used to keep track of when a person voted, and were the 
main way to check signatures to combat voter fraud and verify 
petitions. But many boards, including both Montgomery and Cuyahoga, 
scan the signatures into a computer database and no longer record 
voting history on the cards.

  The League of Women Voters of Ohio on Thursday called on Blackwell to 
clarify his position. League national president Kay Maxwell said she 
knows of no other states that are requiring the 80-pound paper stock 
for voter registration cards. "This is the first I've heard of it," she 
said on Thursday in Columbus.

  The other directive forbids poll workers from giving a provisional 
ballot unless the person can prove they live in that precinct. Peg 
Rosenfield, spokeswoman for the league, said she interprets federal to 
be less restrictive. Rosenfield says people who show up at the wrong 
precinct should be given a ballot and allowed to vote on the non-local 
races.

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