ACLU sues over paper ballots in Ohio

[babsbunny]

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/ACLU_sues_over_paper_ballots_in_Ohi_01282008.html

ACLU Asks Court to Block Paper Voting System in Ohio's Largest County

THOMAS J. SHEERAN
AP News

Jan 28, 2008 16:20 EST

The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge on Monday to block the March 4 presidential primary in Ohio's biggest county if it switches to a paper ballot system that doesn't allow voters to correct errors.



In a follow-up to a suit it filed Jan. 17, the ACLU of Ohio asked for a preliminary injunction against any election in Cuyahoga County if the switch is made.

[MissWaverly]

1. if this goes through, it could restore 1 voice 1 vote

when I tried to vote for Kerry in the 2004 general election in Baltimore, MD and the machine kept defaulting to Bush, if someone
would have said, your ballot shows an overvote and is not valid and given me the chance to pick the candidate I wanted, I would
have faith in our elections process.

[Ms. Toad]

2. The headline is a tad misleading

This is not a suit to block paper voting, per se. It is a suit to block centralized vote counting, which would prevent Cuyahoga County residents (the only ones in the state required to use such a system) from getting a chance to fix any inadvertent mistakes (or misreads) of their ballots.

Precinct based systems kick back ballots which have specific problems that can be identified by the scanner back for review and/or correction. The voter is given a chance to fix the problem, and the ballot reread. In the Cuyahoga County system, ballots would be mailed in and rejected ballots just wouldn't have the race counted (in the event of an overvote) or the voter wouldn't get a chance to vote for additional candidates if s/he inadvertently only voted for one when s/he was permitted to vote for multiple candidates.

Another problem with the plan (although I don't think that aspect is being challenged) is that the ballots will be transported to a central location before counting. The easiest way to fix an election is the old fashioned way - mess with the physical ballots before they are counted. Precinct based systems count before transporting

[zbdent]

3. This might be a good ploy to force Repukes to back verifiable voting ...

since they think that nothing the ACLU defends is valid ...