U.S. top court will not review Ohio 'perfect' ballot law

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left in place a lower court's ruling that barred private citizens from suing Ohio for allegedly impeding their ability to vote by requiring ballot forms to be filled out perfectly.

The justices declined to review the ruling that dismissed claims by Ohio's Democratic Party and homeless rights groups that the state's "perfect form" law, which invalidates ballots for even minor errors, deprived thousands of people of their right to vote, violating the federal Voting Rights Act. Such suits must be filed by the federal government, not private citizens, that court held.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless in Cleveland, the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless and the state Democratic Party challenged a pair of 2014 laws.

Those laws required county election boards to reject absentee and provisional ballots unless voters had properly and completely filled out the forms that come with the ballots, including with their name, address, birth date and signature.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-ballot-idUSKBN19A1X2

---

SUPREME COURT | Mon Jun 19, 2017 | 11:27am EDT
By Andrew Chung | WASHINGTON

[ananda]

1. Oh dear.

Not good.

[PoliticAverse]

2. "Such suits must be filed by the federal government, not private citizens". n/t

[MyOwnPeace]

5. Yeah, I can now.....

see Elf Sessions running down the hall now to protect the rights of "Murikans!"

[unblock]

3. wtf, sounds rather like a jim crow literacy test.

[unblock]

4. ay, oh, way to go ohi-o

[stephensolomita]

6. Voter Suppression Will Not End Anytime Soon

Republican efforts to suppress the vote through legislation, like their anti-abortion legislation, will not stop until Dems regain control at the State level. Remember, Hillary garnered more votes than Don the Con, while Dems have generally received more total votes in Congressional elections, even when Republicans gained or maintained control of the House. In truth, Republican success in large measure depends on manipulating the vote by, for example, aggressive gerrymandering. Voter suppression is simply a part of that package. With Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, we can expect those efforts to accelerate.

[DFW]

7. What wonderful reasoning

Like the government of Iran blocking pleas for equal rights from Iranian Jews by saying the head ayatollah has to make the request, not the Jews themselves.

[unblock]

8. is this not a voting abridgment, barred by the 15th amendment?

is the voting rights act, subject to the discretion of the usag, the only protection?

[Maeve]

9. For what it is worth...

I sent in an absentee ballot that was incomplete (birthdate) and got a second chance to vote--because I sent it in early enough for it to be caught. And you can check on-line to see if your ballot is accepted.

Provisional ballot forms are double and triple checked by the prov ballot judges (I am one) and our rate of unaccepted ballots due to errors has been falling.

That said--there are too many hoops to jump thru for Ohio voters and I think people who are harmed by not having their votes count should have the right to sue. We can't trust that the federal government will do the right thing all the time.