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Vote? You Have No Right To Vote.


Ah Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, Ohio. Where the art of voter disenfranchisement is practiced and honed to a fine art.

The requirement that voters provide proof of identification to cast an early absentee ballot is back on again. But stay tuned.

The 6 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order last night staying a lowercourt ruling from last week that had put the ID provision on hold.

That means county boards of elections, which had been telling voters late last week that they didn’t need ID to cast an absentee ballot, must start requiring an ID again today....

...But Subodh Chandra, a Cleveland lawyer representing one of the groups that sued to challenge the ID requirement, has said he plans to appeal the 6 th Circuit ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chandra, representing Service Employees International Union 1199, said last night’s court action guarantees more confusion among voters and poll workers and puts votes at risk of not being counted.

"We hope that the 6 th Circuit is not taking the position that one must permit an election to be a train wreck before one tries to stop the wreck," Chandra said. "That’s what appears to be happening."

The US needs a new amendment - one that gives US citizens the right to vote, and requires State governments to make it happen. The teeth to the amendment is that the number of electoral votes a state receives will be reduced by the percentage of adult citizens who don't vote.

Want to suppress the vote for partisan gain? Go right ahead, but don't expec the rest of the country to have to give you a full voice in the outcome of the election.

As for Ohio, disenfranchising the poor, elderly and blacks isn't going to be enough to keep Democrats out this time. And just as in the House, Ohio Democrats have had their faces shoved in the mud for a long time. I don't imagine they're going to be magnanimous in victory.


Ian Welsh October 31, 2006 - 2:28am
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Real deep sigh...

Just bring your ID to the polls like I do, whether I need it or not. I mean, who doesn't have ID in 2006 AD? You can't function in society without one. The bank won't cash a check without ID either, so just clench your teeth and bring it along - it doesn't weigh that much. The days of "I am who I say I am" are soooo over.

That having been said... my 85yo mother-in-law voted absentee, and screwed it up. There's a space on the absentee ballot for your driver's license number. Ohio licenses have two mumbers: there's one above the photo that identifies the deputy registrar that issued the license. And there's one under the address, labeled LICENSE NO., that's the actual driver's license number. So, of course Mom wrote in the wrong one. (And apparently she's not alone.)

JSmith October 31, 2006 - 11:26am
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From the Ohio Voter

From the Ohio Voter Information Guide right now:
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/PublicAffairs/VoterInfoGuide.aspx?Section=1774

"R.C. 3505.18(A)
Voters must bring identification to the polls in order to verify identity. Identification may include a current and valid photo identification, a military identification that shows the voter's name and current address, or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document, other than a reminder or a voter registration notification, that shows the voter's name and current address. Voters who do not provide one of these documents will still be able to vote by providing the last four digits of the voter's social security number and by casting a provisional ballot.

Voters who do not have any of the above forms of identification, including a social security number, will still be able to vote by signing an affirmation swearing to the voter's identity under penalty of election falsification and by casting a provisional ballot.
(The above requirement is effective June 1, 2006)"

Gee, it says you don't need ID - worst case scenario you can always sign an affirmation and cast a provisional ballot.

Of course, depending on the court case, that could be wrong...

Or, actually, even without the court case, that could be wrong - see about this article which indicates that that information may have been incorrect as well, for whenever it meant anything:

ABC News: Oct 24th

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2602657

"There's a significant risk here that tens of thousands of ballots will not be counted," said Subodh Chandra, a Cleveland attorney representing the group.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks a temporary restraining order on behalf of Service Employees International Union Local 1199 and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.

Chandra, a one-time Democratic attorney general candidate, said Ohio's 88 county boards of elections are inconsistently applying the new law in voting that is already under way.

The law requires voters to produce identification before casting ballots, but the boards are using different requirements for acceptable identification, such as military identification, driver's licenses and Social Security cards, said Chandra's co-counsel, attorney Caroline Gentry. She said voters also may encounter different requirements depending on whether they are voting absentee or at a board office.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the Republican candidate for governor, has provided no guidance to clear up confusion, Chandra said.

Blackwell spokesman James Lee said the secretary of state's office has sent instructions to the county boards at least twice.

Among the provisions questioned in the complaint is one that allows an Ohio driver's license number to be provided as identification. Gentry said that there are two numbers on a driver's license, the actual license number and an identifier that appears above the card's photograph.

In early voting, she said attorneys have identified one county accepting either number, one accepting only the license number, another unclear and awaiting legal guidance from the state, and two others that didn't understand the dilemma."

Hmmmm.... looks like there are no consistent rules, looks like Blackwell hasn't updated the guide since June (and those look like th old rules to me, though I'm guessing on that) and it looks like a week out from the election no one knows what's going on.

Voter ID laws have historically been used to disenfranchize the poor, and ethnics (by which if you read "blacks" you are reading it correctly.) Just like voting machines weren't delivered to inner city precincts in 2004 in Ohio either. But suburban areas got plenty. Ohio doesn't have a good record on this, and I'll lay long odds that the voting problems will be more prevalent in Democratic districts.

Ian Welsh October 31, 2006 - 11:47am
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Election Day forecast: Problems likely

Mark Niquette | Columbus, OH, USA | November 6

Columbus Dispatch - Although they hope they are wrong, elections experts fear a combination of new voting machines, last-minute changes to voter-identification rules and close races could spell problems at the polls Tuesday and beyond.

The experts don’t think it’s guaranteed that voters will have problems and there will be controversy, especially if hotly contested statewide or congressional races aren’t close.

But if there are narrow outcomes, observers say chances are good that confusion at the polls or problems with casting and counting ballots — including recounts — will be put under the microscope and could spark legal challenges.

Rick November 6, 2006 - 9:31pm
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