Reply #46: . . .

[ohioan]

Why was the original Dayton story directly descriptive of the order, if that isn't what they are (were) doing? They weren't registering people in Dayton if the paper was wrong, they were sending new applications. A pointless exercise if the application was otherwise perfect.

Not at all. The purpose of the card is a record-keeping matter, not a registration matter. Blackwell seems to now be taking the position that the registrations will be accepted but the county must still obtain and maintain a permanent record on card stock. However, this will not affect whether the registration is valid. That seems to be the approach that the counties are taking and that may be why Montgomery County is sending out the cards. There is nothing in the Dayton Daily News story indicating that Montgomery County plans to invalidate the registration of anyone whose registration was not on card stock.

How would a challenge to this make things worse? Because a challenge has no legal basis at this point and would be thrown out of court promptly - hardly a good public relations strategy for the party.

You have no idea of the scope of the problem. Yes, I do. I understand the problem quite well.

Have you read the original order? Yes. I have read both the state regulation and Blackwell's letter to the counties regarding it.

What state law requires the heavy paper anyway? It's not a state law, but a long-standing rule of the Secretary of State (it predated Blackwell). Ohio Revised Code, Sec. 3501.05(F) gives the Secretary of State the authority to "prescribe the form of registration cards, blanks, and records." Sec. 3503.13 provides that "registration forms shall consist of original and duplicate cards or loose-leaf pages as prescribed by the secretary of state." Pursuant to that authority, the Secretary of State has directed counties to use card stock.

As I said, however, this issue may go away because Blackwell's office is backing down and most Ohio counties are simply ignoring him.