WSJ: Voting Changes May Snarl Tallies in big OH County (Cuyahoga ie Cleveland)

[mod mom]

Voting Changes May Snarl
Tallies in Big Ohio County
By JUNE KRONHOLZ
February 22, 2008; Page A4

Ohio's March 4 primary could be do-or-die for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions. Here is the catch: Cuyahoga County, where she hopes to cement a victory, has just changed the way it casts, collects and counts its votes, potentially clouding any win.


Most polls suggest Sen. Clinton is comfortably ahead in Ohio, where blue-collar voters are among her most loyal supporters and where a big win could propel her to a similar victory in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.

But problems in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland and is the state's most populous county, could tarnish any Clinton win -- or invite Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to challenge it.

"We can safely predict there will be some problems" with the county's new voting system, says Ohio State University law professor Daniel Tokaji. "How catastrophic it is depends on how close the election ends up being."

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120364389402984793.html

Administering the March 4 Primary in Ohio


February 19, 2008

Edward B. Foley
Director, Election Law @ Moritz
Robert M. Duncan/Jones Day Designated Professor of Law
Moritz College of Law


It is widely believed that Ohio’s primary on March 4 will play a pivotal role in determining the Democratic candidate for President. If Obama wins the statewide popular vote, the pundits proclaim, his victory likely would propel him to similar success in Pennsylvania (on April 22), and the party’s “superdelegates”—who by all accounts will control the outcome of the party’s national convention in Denver—will fall in line. Conversely, if Clinton prevails in the Ohio primary’s popular vote, then she would be expected to do the same in Pennsylvania, and these two victories in states that will be major battlegrounds in the general election campaign will cause the superdelegates to favor her.

Consequently, the conduct of Ohio’s election officials in administering the primary vote is now important, not only as a “test run” of technologies and procedures to be used again in November, but also in its own right. While it is the prerogative of the Democratic Party to make what use of the Ohio primary vote as it wishes—including any significance the superdelegates may find in the results about the electability of these two candidates in the fall—it remains the responsibility of the state’s election officials to manage the casting and counting of primary ballots properly, so that its results are accurate.

Whether we care about the performance of Ohio’s election system for one or both of these reasons, what should we look for on March 4 to evaluate whether or not it worked satisfactorily?

Here are five things to keep an eye on. While this short list is inevitably incomplete—indeed, one important truth about election administration is the need to maintain flexibility given the good chance that something unexpected will occur—this is a reasonable set of priorities as we come within two weeks of the primary date.



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5 areas to watch in detail at link:

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/articles.php?ID=329



1. Cuyahoga County.

2. Disenfranchisement through Under-Capacity

3. Polling Place Confusion and Inequalities

4. High Rates of Provisional Voting

5. Irregularities in Absentee Voting

CROSS POSTED IN ELECTION REFORM BUT THOUGHT OTHERS WHO DON'T GO THERE SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS!

[islandmkl]

1. in OHIO???

[mod mom]

3. yes, Cuyahoga County Ohio has over 27% of the population Af Am and is very blue.

[K Gardner]

2. My son was just told he couldn't vote because he didn't register

in time. Evidently, he'll miss the 30 day waiting period by a few days. I wonder if young people and those new to Ohio are aware they have this waiting period. Could impact some of the new voter turnout, I imagine.

[democrattotheend]

4. I'm worried about that too

Although the 30-day advance registration period is the law in most states. But I think Wisconsin's same-day registration policy helped Obama. He has done poorly in some other states that don't have same-day registration, like NJ and CA.

Regardless of candidate preference, I think same-day registration is an important step toward increasing voter turnout in this country, and I wish more states would adopt it. I know a lot of people who have been unable to vote because they did not register in time or moved shortly before the election. I also know people who have been blocked from voting because of registration snafus, myself included. When I turned 18, I mailed in my voter registration application and got a card saying I was registered, but when I went to cast my first vote in 2002, I was told I had to vote provisionally because my signature on the form had been too light to be scanned. Pretty upsetting at the time.