Ohio’s Ballot Woes Could Delay Election Results For Weeks

[ProfessionalLeftist]

Pollsters and pundits have trained their eyes on Ohio, where President Obama maintains a narrow lead over Mitt Romney just days before the election. According to exit polls, Obama’s lead is even stronger among early voters. But several recent developments threaten to disenfranchise many of these voters and plunge Ohio into a bureaucratic nightmare on election night.

The Columbus Dispatch reported today that a data-sharing glitch and mistakes by election officials has caused thousands of absentee ballot requests to be rejected. While Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted maintains that this was a computer error, the Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates found an abnormally high rate of rejected absentee ballot requests in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Cleveland. The Cuyahoga Board of Elections determined that 865 ballot requests had been erroneously thrown out.

If these voters try to cast their vote in person, they will likely be forced to use a provisional ballot, as the absentee ballot error has thrown their registration status into question. At least 4,500 registered voters across the state will be left waiting for their absentee ballots, while as many as 6,000 provisional ballots cast by registered voters could be tossed out. The provisional ballots that do not get thrown out won’t be counted until November 17, according to state law, further dragging out the confusion.

MORE...

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/01/1122641/ohios-ballot-woes-could-delay-election-results-for-weeks/

[LisaL]

1. Just amazing how these glitches always seem to favor republicans.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

3. So far, FL and OH are facked

Pretty easy to see where this is going - again. I hope I'm wrong. With all this and and the mess in the states hit by Sandy, it's really worrisome.

[marions ghost]

16. Gotta admit

I am worried... bracing for the worst.

I know people don't want to hear this....and I'm sorry. But the way that they are pulling every trick in the book to thwart voting in these swing states ... it smells.

I hope to be proven wrong.

[librechik]

2. Oh fuckin hio

the Repubs in charge of voting there are doing everything possible to ruin Ohio's democracy. And it's not the first time. This is what we get for trying to point out fraud and being told we're idiot conspiracy theorists. The same fraud the same fraudsters year after year.

Wake up, America. It's not a theory!

[WCGreen]

5. This is what we get when democrats are too other wised occupied to turn out for the state wide

elections.

It's pathetic how many democrats can't be bothered to vote unless they are voting for president.

[librechik]

24. yup--my son lives in Australia, where you have to vote or pay a fine--we should have that!

how different --I suspect better-- this country would be!

[WCGreen]

4. Well, to be fair, the democrats are pretty much concentrated in the large counties

That's about 5 counties with more than 65% of the population, Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Franklin (Columbus), Lucas (Toledo), Montgomery (Dayton) and Hamilton (Cincinnati) have the most Democrats.

Of course there are other concentrations of Democrats, but as many as in these five counties. There are counties that have less than 2,000 voters.

Still, you can track your absentee ballot at the Secretary of States Web Site, I do believe. But here in Cuyahoga County, there is a link at the website to check your absentee. Mrs WCGreen and mine both were logged in as valid on 10/31/12.

[LisaL]

8. Some of the people never got their absentee ballot because of the glitch.

[nc4bo]

6. Wow. The United States of, where one is never sure if one's vote will count, America.

[qazplm]

7. millions vote in Ohio

it is highly unlikely the vote will be decided by a few thousand.

Yes, not impossible, obviously, see Florida, but still fairly unlikely.

[LisaL]

9. Large number of absentee ballots still hasn't been returned.

You have to mail it on or before November 5. But if you mail it on November five, it will likely not arrive on November six. So if it's close they will have to wait for outstanding absentee ballots as well as provisional ballots.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

10. I agree

This issue, along with the appeals court ruling yesterday, has the potential to "do away" with thousands of votes.

[LisaL]

12. SOS Husted (R) send everybody absentee ballot application.

So some people who didn't intend to vote absentee filled it out. And now, they are stuck.
If they don't vote absentee, they will not be allowed to vote in person (only on provisional ballot).
This was not an issue before, since this is the first time every registered voter in OH got an absentee ballot application.
And we can all thank SOS Husted for this mess.

[farmbo]

17. Actually... Jennifer Brunner started this practice in 2008...

http://washingtonindependent.com/115446/former-ohio-sec-of-state-brunner-weighs-in-on-absentee-ballot-application-ban

... and encouraged Husted to do it again this year. It's generally a sound pro-voter practice.

Of course, Brunner made every effort to re-contact voters if there was any problem with their application or the absentee ballot itself.

Husted, on the other hand, has his staff playing "gotcha" on ballots with any technical glitches and I suspect there will be much mischief on election night.

[LisaL]

21. She might have started the practice, but Husted was the one sending them to every voter.

"But there is one significant difference this year. In past elections, most Ohioans had to proactively request an absentee ballot. This year, Husted simplified the process by sending an application to registered voters statewide. An unintended consequence of that could be to increase the number of people who ask for an absentee ballot but do not use it, not realizing that means they must vote provisionally at the polls."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/10/25/absentee-ballots-could-hang-up-ohios-results/1656275/

[CreekDog]

15. you just drop it off at the polling place, we do that in CA all the time

[LisaL]

22. Absolutely not. You might do it in CA. But it's not how it's done in OH.

If you want to drop it off in person, you have to go to the board of elections.

[CreekDog]

23. yes, it's harder but given the small size of Ohio counties, will be possible for many

I prefer California's system to Ohio's, but Ohio's to many states!

[defacto7]

13. true... but

the other casualty are the voters themselves.

What voter wants to feel like their vote doesn't count? If there is a record of votes not being counted, many will not show. If you are an active political person, you understand the numbers better than the average person. But the average person who votes because they can, or feel like it, or have voted in the past and are not active participants.. these people can be lost if they feel it's not worth the trouble. That is the long term problem. If people, many times young people, get the feeling it's a joke or that it doesn't matter and become apathetic to politics, we all loose... and the likely pick up will be the fanatic right wing.

[SCliberal091294]

11. ..

We have a sitting president which will benfit us greatly. Maybe if Cheating was proved but they could prove who voted for whom. They would just not count Ohio's electoral votes....I wish

[HopeHoops]

14. True, but Obama has multiple ways to up near 300 without Ohio at all.

[AverageJoe90]

18. Very true, and that's what keeps me from falling into despair.

We may lose Ohio, true. But they can't rig the game entirely without their shtick being fully exposed to the American public once and for all. Too many people are skeptical of the wingnuts now and the polling in most of the swing states has consistently shown the President ahead of RMoney. And then there's Obama's lawyers and the U.N. observers in not just Ohio and Florida, but even here in Texas and other non-swing states.

[Science Geek]

19. I'm in Ohio, and I'm sure Obama will win Ohio...

Obama has never been behind in Ohio. He's consistently been between 3 and 7 percent ahead in Ohio for the last 10 weeks, according to nearly all of the largest and most widely respected polls.

Ohio is like two states, N. Ohio and S. Ohio. S. Ohio is very red, and N. Ohio is very Blue. Fortunately, most of the major population centers are located in the North.

[AverageJoe90]

20. Very true.

If they do try something, here's hoping our efforts will have paid off so they can't win.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. What happens if we get over 270 EVs on election night WITHOUT OH?

(Pretty please, I am tired of this shit)

[Maeve]

26. I sincerely hope we do!

Our Sec of State has done everything he can to muck things up and it would be justice if it didn't matter in the end.

That said, I think Ohio is going to have far fewer problems than expected and STILL come out for Obama!

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. And you know it is not Ohioans that piss me off

it is the political class who do this shit.

For god sakes, I have family in Cleveland.

[Maeve]

28. Never took it wrong, no problem

I don't think most of the people who voted these jokers in knew what they were setting us up for. (Lor, but I've lost respect for a lot of my fellow citizens, tho!)