Ohio’s Ballot Woes Could Delay Election Results For Weeks

[liberal N proud]

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 on Thursday that a data-sharing glitch and mistakes by election officials have 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.

This absentee ballot fiasco is just the latest in Ohio’s dysfunctional election saga. On Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Husted to discount ballots cast by people directed to the wrong polling station by a pollworker — one of the most common errors that led to thousands of votes getting thrown out in Ohio’s dysfunctional 2004 presidential election.


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



Welcome to 2000!

[barnabas63]

1. Not if we get enough EVs without Ohio, which is quite possible..nt

[dchill]

2. Jon Husted...

Needs to be recalled. And that would just be a small start to what should happen - to ANY corrupt state election official anywhere.

[Lisa D]

6. Recalled or arrested.

His voter suppression tactics are getting blatant now. He needs to be removed from office.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Get it together, Ohiostan

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. They seem to have trouble that breaks to the right

every single election. What is it going to take to see to it that Ohio has its shit together in time for an election?

Here it is four days from a major election and Ohio officials are incapable of conducting one without a myriad of issues and questions.

[liberal N proud]

5. It is going to take someone getting prosecuted for election tampering before it stops

These crooks were put in office to do just what they are doing and until someone goes to jail for it, it will continue.

They got away with it before and they are going to keep doing it because they can.

[socialist_n_TN]

9. RE: your first paragraph......

That's it in a nutshell. Until someone goes to jail for it, it will continue. And that someone had better be pretty high up in the food chain. Unfortunately the official Democrats don't seem to be worried about it too much. This has been happening for over a decade after all.

[CitizenLeft]

11. none of this shit happened under a Democratic governor

Remember who runs this state. Republicans. They run both state houses, too. I seriously pray that my fellow Ohioans have finally learned their lesson and get the fuck out to vote in the MID-TERMS. They matter. If there's ever a time to believe that, it's now.

Stop asking "Ohio" to get it's shit together. This crap is deliberate. Just as it was in 2004, under another Republican governor. Remember Ken Blackwell? He was the equivalent of Husted. We might as well have Scott or Walker running this state. Same difference.

[ladjf]

7. I think that we are going to have to win it without Ohio, the vote rigging capital of America. nt

[liberal N proud]

8. And everyone thought Chicago was corrupt.

[RagAss]

10. Bullshit - Ohio will be called for Obama before 10pm

[Zalatix]

13. Let us pray. (Or hope?) (Or both?)

[RomneyLies]

14. ^^ This n/t

[Honeycombe8]

12. This stinks. nt

[SoCalDem]

15. That's why we desperately need Virginia

then Ohio is moot..and they can count until April