Interpreting Voting Laws in Ohio?

[OnyxCollie]

When I first got my ballot, I was told I did not need to present ID. (They even included a little handout saying so.) On the way to the BOE to return my ballot, I heard on the local Air America affiliate that the judge's order to vote without ID had been upheld. So, when I turned in my ballot I was told I needed to present ID. I told the election worker I had just heard that I didn't need to present ID. She said, "That lasted about three hours." I loudly cursed Ken Blackheart for his new poll tax to disenfranchise voters and presented my ID.

I returned to the BOE with my girlfriend so she could get her ballot. I asked the election worker, "If I had mailed in my ballot without any ID info, what would have happened? Would you have thrown it out?" She replied, "No, we would accept it." I started to complain loudly that this was a charade and a fraud, at which time my girlfriend hustled me out of there.

After leaving the BOE, I thought I should have asked the election worker to present something to prove what she said. (Max Weber's Ideal Bureaucracy says written, formal rules are required for procedures.) After all, if the law is to present ID, and she said my ballot would be accepted without ID, isn't that violating the law? If there was no written directive to accept absentee ballots mailed in without ID info, wouldn't she be following the law at her own discretion? (Weber's Bureaucracy allows a small amount of discretion.) How do I know there might be others that WOULD follow the law?

WHY SHOULD I TRUST ANY OF THESE PEOPLE?