both TonyRo76 and LasVegasDave.
Posted on 11/13/2008 3:18:39 PM PST by buccaneer81
Stivers' supporters sue Brunner over provisional ballots Thursday, November 13, 2008 5:03 PM By Mark Niquette THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH A new lawsuit has been filed against Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner arguing that she is telling the Franklin County Board of Elections to count provisional ballots that state law says should be rejected.
The case, filed in the Ohio Supreme Court, could affect the 15th Congressional District race and two Ohio House contests where the number of uncounted provisional ballots is higher than the unofficial vote margin separating the candidates.
The lawsuit was filed by two Franklin County voters on behalf of the campaign of Republican Steve Stivers, who leads Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy in the 15th District race by less than 400 votes with thousands of provisional ballots outstanding.
Provisional ballots are cast primarily by voters who move and don't update the address on their registration, don't appear in the poll book for some reason or don't have the proper identification at the polls.
The ballots are held for 10 days while elections workers verify the voter's eligibility and either count or discard the ballots accordingly.
The dispute involves what should be done with provisional ballots when voters fail to both print and sign their names on the envelopes in which the ballots are placed after being cast.
According to the lawsuit, filed against Brunner and the Franklin County elections board, Brunner's office has told the board to count provisional ballots as long as the voter can be identified - even if voters do not print their names and only sign them. About 3 percent to 4 percent of the provisionals fall into that category.
The advice from Brunner's office, which contradicted earlier guidance, came after a lawyer for Kilroy's committee questioned the rules for counting provisional ballots, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit asks the Ohio Supreme Court to order Brunner to advise the county board that any provisional envelope must contain both the name and signature of the voter for the ballot to be counted and that a voter also must complete the identification section on the envelope.
Because the board can begin opening provisional envelopes Saturday, the lawsuit also seeks an order halting that process until the dispute is decided because once a ballot is separated from its envelope, it can't be identified later.
Brunner's office said in a statement that state lawyers are reviewing the suit and "a response will be filed at the appropriate time."
At issue, in part, is what constitutes poll worker error that should not cause a voters' ballot to be disqualified.
A separate federal lawsuit before the election was resolved with an agreed order saying provisional ballots could not be rejected because of poll worker error, such as a poll worker failing to sign the provisional envelope.
Before the election, Brunner issued a 10-page directive spelling out how provisional ballots were to be handled as part of an agreed order signed by U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr.
It was part of a 2006 lawsuit brought by a homeless advocacy coalition that challenged Ohio's laws requiring identification at the polls and for handling provisional ballots.
The judge's order said "no provisional ballot cast by an eligible elector should be rejected because of a poll worker's failure to comply with duties mandated" by state law, including failing to sign the envelope.
But Brunner's directive says provisional ballots "may not be rejected for reasons that are attributable to poll worker error," which the lawsuit argues is being interpreted to include mistakes beyond a poll worker's legal responsibility.
"It appears to us that the secretary of state is attempting to eviscerate Ohio election protections on the basis that anything that could have been corrected by a poll worker constitutes poll worker error, even though it is the obligation of the voter to comply with the statute," said attorney John W. Zeiger, representing the two voters suing Brunner.
mniquette@dispatch.com
Ohio election theft/Brunner ping!
Another communist at work.
Corrupt rodent OH Sec of State trying to steal another House seat.
“Provisional ballots” are typically votes cast by morons who can’t figure out how to register and vote like normal people. In other words, they are going to hugely favor Democrats. The final tally will boil down to how many Republican allies and trusted volunteers Stiver can muster to prevent the rats from stealing the election by counting the votes of felons, illegal aliens, and fictional cartoon characters (ACORN).
The fix was in a long time ago. This woman needs to go to jail. Ohio needs to throw these bums out of office and reclaim their integrity.
I agree. The DNC must be providing training and inspiration for these vote-stealers. It's happening in far too many places.
The left understands how important Sec of States posts are.
I read an article on some “progressive” website that touted rat victories here as one of the key outcomes of the election.
Does anyone doubt this ‘woman’ and her counterparts are trying to steal every race they can?
And Harris just followed the damn law.
What happened in Ohio was a crime and this is how BAD WE WERE! We couldn’t have saved our butts if they had been on fire. OHH!
Polling day confusion and apology Cleveland Ohio, November 3-4, 2008.
To: Volunteers for Poll Watching Cuyahoga County.
I’m writing to both explain and apologize for the problems and failures which occurred during the election.
I first arrived in Cleveland on October 20th, as a New York volunteer for the Republican Party. Including election day I spent 10 days working to recruit Poll Observers and during that time spoke to many of you, asking for help defending the polls from illegal voting. Many of you agreed and following that agreement never received either an assignment, credentials that had been promised, or both. Many of you waited anxiously on November 3rd for credentials and assignments.
The details of multiple communications failures are a long tail of miss-steps that included spam filters, lack of training, multiple qualifying procedures, overtaxed volunteers and lack of co-ordination with workers in Columbus headquarters. Only after the fact did I realize that there were only a few polling stations that we could place observers in that were not in the heart of Cleveland, the most challenging areas of town. Columbus was making an effort to further qualify people for these difficult assignments after I had already spoken to many of you. They then excluded many because they couldn’t contact you in time. If they didn’t recontact you then you were never assigned. Even if some of you were contacted concerning a location the time was so short and the staff in Columbus so taxed for the time available that some were left hanging with a location, no credentials, but plenty of anxiety.
This is the short answer to what went on and why I am writing to apologize for the failures prior to the election. Hopefully things will run more smoothly in the future.
Thanks to all of you who stepped forward to protect the integrity of the voting system. My best wishes go out to you all.
Sincerely,
Ci-cagoizing America!
The Chicago boys have friends in Youngstown.
Without a doubt. I've seen old pictures of Capone visiting Youngstown. And I remember in the '90s, the mob tried to do a hit on the county prosecutor in his own home on Christmas Eve. No one was ever arrested. Imagine that.
Big puff piece in the Dayton Daily News today about how well Brunner handled the election. ARRGH!!!!
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