Suit claims some ex-cons misled on voting rights
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
By PAUL E. KOSTYU Copley Columbus Bureau chief

COLUMBUS — Once they’ve served their time, felons can vote in Ohio. But that’s not what state officials and boards of elections in Ohio have been telling them, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants and the Racial Fairness Project.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati against Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and county elections boards, says elections officials in nearly one-quarter of the counties incorrectly told convicted felons who are no longer incarcerated that they cannot vote.

Stark County wasn’t among those giving out bad information, according to a study by the Cincinnati-based Prison Reform Advocacy Center. But Tuscarawas County and some other area counties were. In all, the report said 20 of the 88 county elections boards misinformed callers, and officials in another 11 counties indicated they did not know whether ex-felons could vote.

The report estimates that 7,000 would-be voters were disenfranchised in Ohio because of the mistakes. The lawsuit estimates 7,000 to 21,000 former prisoners should be eligible to vote in Ohio in the Nov. 2 general election.

State officials maintain that the problem has been corrected because prisoners get voter-education material and local elections boards all now know the law and have received the advocacy center’s report.

When people are convicted of felonies in Ohio and sent to prison, the courts notify elections boards to pull their names from voter rolls. Unlike some states, however, Ohio allows them to vote once they’re out of prison, whether or not they’re on parole. But it is up to the individual, not the courts, to notify the elections boards and reregister.

In a close presidential election year when Ohio is being watched nationally, every ballot becomes significant. Ohio has 8.14 million people eligible to vote, and 7.3 million of those are registered, according to Carlo LoParo, Blackwell’s spokesman.

Blackwell’s office wasn’t commenting on the lawsuit.

But Mike Sciortino, president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials and director of the Mahoning County elections office, said the state has “no excuse. We have to be on the ball because all eyes are watching us. It’s simple. They can vote.”

Deion Cash, executive director of the Community Treatment and Correction Center in Canton, a halfway house for 50 former inmates, called the report disheartening.

“They need to be placed into society,” she said. “They need to be able to vote. We need to give them a chance.”

The report cited Tuscarawas, Holmes, Harrison and Coshocton as counties that gave out bad information. Of three calls made by the advocacy center to the Tuscarawas elections board, at least one response said ex-offenders could not vote. All three calls made to each of the elections boards in Holmes, Coshocton and Harrison counties got negative responses.

Charles Miller, director of the Tuscarawas elections board, said he doesn’t remember the office getting quizzed about whether ex-felons can vote. He also questioned whether any ex-felons have been disenfranchised in his county.

Jeanette Mullane, deputy director of the Stark elections board, said she registered 30 to 40 former prisoners at a job fair in May at a halfway house on Tuscarawas Street E in Canton.

But, as with other voters, registering to vote doesn’t mean voting. A random check of a half-dozen felons in Stark County who are registered to vote shows none of them have filled out a ballot in the last 20 years.

Cash thinks her clients understand the importance of this year’s election, but she doesn’t know whether that interest will translate into votes. “We will definitely get them there” if they want to vote, she said.

LoParo said the state has taken steps to ensure local elections boards and advocacy groups know that ex-felons can vote. The registration deadline is Oct. 4.

Brian Niceswander, a spokesman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said it gives prisoners a copy of a voter registration card and a list of boards of elections in the six months before their release, and they’re told they can vote.

“Unless they’re asleep, they shouldn’t be confused,” he said