I wrote a diary on Dkos last week regarding voting provisional. It all started with a diary titled ACTION ALERT: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct 1st.- Vote Early which was later debunked here. While the Dkos community was busy slapping themselves on the back for investigating and debunking this diary, I realized that there may be a little bit of truth to this story.
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Most of us know that many registration rolls were purged in counties across Ohio in 2005. In Franklin County alone, over 114,000 registrations were purged on June 20, 2005. I spoke to an official at the Franklin Co. BOE and he told me that actually about 140,000 people had been removed from the voter registration rolls in the last two years.
The County resumed regular purging of its voter list only after the 2004 election, and on June 20, 2005 removed approximately 114,000 ineligible individuals from its voter registration list.
Having said that, I don’t think voter purges will be the main suppression in the 2006 election. The main suppression will be with provisional ballots.
In Franklin County Ohio, registered voters received a newsletter in the mail in the last days of September. This newsletter is to inform the voters of the new Voter ID laws and includes an absentee ballot request form.
A post-office snafu delayed the delivery of voter information and absentee-ballot applications to thousands of Franklin County residents.
Most registered voters received the state-required mailing Friday or Saturday, more than a week after an electionsboard vendor submitted them for delivery.
Director Matthew Damschroder said the agency paid nearly $283,000 for first-class delivery of 740,000 newsletters but was told they got mixed in with third-class mail.
This same mailing went to Cuyahoga and Delaware County Ohio. Other counties received a postcard. The purpose of the mailing was not only to inform voters of the new voter I.D. law but also to update their registration rolls.
The post office treats election-related material as firstclass mail no matter what postage is paid, but Damschroder said the board paid the first-class rate because it included free return postage for newsletters that couldn’t be delivered.
The state law doesn’t allow information to be forwarded to voters who’ve moved from the address at which they registered. The third-class rate was cheaper, but Damschroder said the county would have had to pay postage for about 100,000 newsletters it expects to be returned.
I called the Franklin County BOE and the number of newsletters returned were actually around 150,000. Now this is where it gets tricky. If for some reason you did not receive your newsletter, there is a very good chance that you may be forced to cast a provisional ballot.
RC Section 3503.19(C)(1)© addresses this issue:
If the mail is returned to the board, it shall investigate and cause the notification to be delivered to the correct address.
(2) If, after investigating as required under division (C)(1) of this section, the board is unable to verify the voter’s correct address, it shall cause the voter’s name in the official registration list and in the poll list or signature pollbook to be marked to indicate that the voter’s notification was returned to the board.
At the first election at which a voter whose name has been so marked appears to vote, the voter shall be required to provide identification to the election officials and to vote by provisional ballot . . . .
At first I panicked when I saw this because the thought of 150k people being forced to cast a provisional ballot in just one county alone made my head spin but there is some relief.
According to the latest Franklin County Precinct Election Officials Training Manual, there is a big difference between a “Registration notice by BOE is undeliverable” (page 49) and “60-day election notice is undeliverable” (page 50).
For the returned registration notice, the signature book arrives at the precinct polling place with the box for the voter’s signature filled in with “This Voter MUST vote a Provisional Ballot. See Note 3 (Back Cover)” and the box for the Authority To Vote number filled in with “PROV”.
For the returned 60-day notice, the signature book will be printed with a STOP sign to the left of the box for the voter’s signature. If the voter shows a valid ID that matches the name and address in the signature book, the voter can vote a regular ballot. If the address does not match, the voter must vote a provisional ballot.
However, if John Smith moved from Maple Street to Walnut street and did not update his regisration before the October deadline, then he may have to cast a provisional ballot. Why? If he went to his old polling place on Maple Street and his I.D. shows he lives on Walnut Street, he will then have to go to his new polling place. At the new polling place, his name will not be on the registration list, hence he will have to cast a provisional ballot.
When the election returns come in November 7th, I predict their will be chaos on the tight elections. Many of the votes will be on provisional ballots and I have no idea how many of them will be counted.
For those not familiar with Ohio, there is a tight congressional race (OH-15) between Republican incumbent Deborah Pryce and Democratic Candidate Mary Jo Kilroy in which a large part of Franklin County is in this district.
I encourage all of you to go now and vote if your state has early voting.
Update [2006-10-27 10:2:38 by Hausfrau]: So far, 5,000 absentee ballots in Franklin County have been disqualified because the voter put the wrong driver’s license number on their ballot envelope. An Ohio Drivers license has two different numbers and people put the wrong one on their absentee ballot envelope. As a result, a Federal Judge has halted state voter-identification requirements.
Blackwell said that he will not appeal the decision and we are waiting to see if Attorney Jim Petro will. I will keep you updated on this story. If the judges rulings sticks, there is a good chance we will not have voter disenfranchisement. Keep your fingers crossed.
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