...
In arguments before the Circuit Court, Husted deflected any concerns about potential voter disenfranchisement by reasserting that it is indeed the poll worker’s responsibility to ensure that the form of ID presented was recorded, adding that voters should not be disenfranchised due to a poll worker’s “failure to write something down.” Having made that argument, Husted nonetheless is now ordering elections supervisors to throw out provisional ballots where the ID is improperly recorded.
“They told the court, ‘don’t worry, because the poll worker’s responsible for the ID portion,’ and the judge relied on it in his order,” Chandra said. “Why does this matter? Because the people most likely to fill this form out, are the people protected by the consent decree, meaning people who are able vote using the last four digits of their social security number — people who are poor. This could be the issue being litigated over, that decides the election.”
Chandra was referring to a 2010 court order which forced the state to let people without traditional forms of ID, or utility bills in their name, to vote provisionally using just their social security numbers. The consent decree covers the current election. It stems from a 2006 law Husted himself presided over when he was state House speaker in 2006; Ohio’s first voter ID law. Advocates for the homeless and low income communities had successfully argued in court that people of modest means were often unable to produce the kinds of ID that cost money to obtain (Ohio doesn’t offer free voter IDs). They won two separate court decrees, in 2006 when Republican Ken Blackwell was secretary of state, and in 2010 when the state’s elections chief was a Democrat, Jennifer Brunner.
On Saturday, NEOCH, Progress Ohio and State Senator Nina Turner held an emergency press conference, in which they accused Husted of orchestrating a stealth form of voter suppression.
“Husted’s edict deliberately seeks to disenfranchise eligible voters whose votes should be counted,” a press release from Progress Ohio read. “In a close election, it could come down to provisional ballots and this 11th hour directive could be a game changer and is nothing short of voter suppression. Husted’s actions are now the subject of emergency motions which have been filed in federal court in Columbus by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.”
...
http://thegrio.com/2012/11/03/groups-file-emergency-motion-over-last-minute-move-that-could-toss-ohio-provisional-ballots/
= new reply since forum marked as read
