Buzzflash calls Blackwell the Ohio Katherine Harris

[donsu]

this is a slightly different election matter. provisional ballots cannot be counted unless the voter went to the proper polling place.

Buzz had this article:

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=2351499

-snip-

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell recently issued a directive to county election officials saying they are allowed to count provisional ballots only from voters who go to the correct polling location for their home address. Blackwell has ordered that if residents go to the wrong precinct, poll workers must find their correct precinct and tell them where to go, Blackwell's spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

They also may cast provisional ballots at their county election board. Provisional voting allows properly registered voters to cast ballots even when their names don't appear on registration rolls because they moved or they were left off. "It has a potential of being a very big issue, and how we train and how we prepare for it will dictate how we handle the situation,'' said Michael Sciortino, president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials and director of the Mahoning County elections board.

Ohio is one of 29 states that will not count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct, said Dan Seligson, editor of electionline.org, a nonpartisan Web site covering voting procedures. Ohio has had provisional balloting for more than a decade, mostly to accommodate residents who moved but did not update their voter registration. Such ballots are not counted for 10 days while election workers verify voter eligibility. But after election problems were magnified by the close 2000 presidential race _ including eligible voters wrongly being turned away from the polls _ Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002. Part of that act requires states that did not have provisional voting to adopt it for voters who believe they are properly registered. That allows their vote to be counted if eligibility is confirmed later.
-snip-
-----------------------------

[DeepModem Mom]

1. Please see this thread about contacting international observers NOW --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x916412

[Pathwalker]

2. Michigan Democrats are suing our Rep. Sec. of State

who's refusing to allow provisional ballots to be counted. It led the local noon news, but there's nothing on their website, but this story is just now developing.

[michigandem2]

3. interesting...I don't like our sec of state...its sick how

awful this has gotten