Blackwell: Ohio will count most ballots of wrong-precinct voters

Associated Press  28 August 2004

CLEVELAND - Ohio will count most provisional ballots of voters who show up at the wrong precinct, the state's top elections official said.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell will issue revised orders directing local elections officials to accept more provisional ballots, spokesman Carlo LoParo said Friday.

Provisional ballots are given to voters at polling places where they are not registered. Voters sometimes show up at the wrong polling place if they have moved into a different precinct but never d their voter registration cards.

Two months ago Blackwell told local elections officials in a memo that provisional ballots cast by voters at the wrong precincts should not be counted or opened. That stance has led to lawsuits in other states.

LoParo said the revised rule would clarify the memo. He said the new rule should protect voters from errors by election board workers, such as misplaced voter registration cards.

The state must accept as many provisional ballots as possible to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act and with Ohio's own election reform plan submitted to the federal government last year, LoParo said.

The state law that says provisional ballots cast at the wrong precincts are not to be counted predates the federal law.

"The intent of the federal law is not only to provide provisional ballots, but that those ballots be counted regardless of any error," LoParo said.