Election 2004: Vote Early and OftenThe lawsuit issue that just keeps on giving
Saturday, October 23, 2004, 08:37 PM
That would be provisional ballots. Yes, I'm finally writing up the survey I've been promising to do, and I'm kinda bummed about it because until today, we had this great ruling from Judge Carr in federal court in Ohio which I wanted to quote from. But today it got overturned. Well, heck, maybe I'll quote from it anyways.
The story is, for those of you not watching Ohio like hawks (and why aren't you?), that Sec. of State Blackwell sent out a directive to county officials that provisional ballots would not be given to voters who appeared at the wrong precinct.
Then the Democratic Party sued in federal court for a preliminary injunction. Judge Carr granted the motion for an injunction and ordered Blackwell to issue a new directive by Oct. 18th that would be in compliance with HAVA (the Help America Vote Act).
On Oct. 20th, two directive versions later, Judge Carr was clearly disgusted with Blackwell's foot-dragging. Read excerpts of his final ruling here.
In the meantime, Blackwell appealed, of course, and the Sixth Circuit chimed in today, overturning Judge Carr's ruling. Yes, they ruled on a Saturday. The text still isn't on their web site, and the story just came out over AP a couple hours ago, with no quotes from the ruling anywhere as of yet.
This map is probably already out of date, but it shows the states which count provisional ballots only if you're at the right precinct, those that count them no matter what, and those where you can register to vote right on the spot. The map doesn't show which states only count parts of the ballot if you're in the wrong precinct, or which parts those are.
If you're a glutton for punishment, you can follow all of the litigation via the Election Law site. I'm sure there will be more along soon.
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