Democrats say Blackwell trying to limit ballot access

By William Hershey

Dayton Daily News 28 September 2004

COLUMBUS | Ohio Democrats took Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to court Monday, charging that he is trying to limit where some voters may cast their ballots in violation of the federal Help America Vote Act.
Blackwell, the state's top elections official, denied the allegations through his spokesman, Carlo LoParo.

In a related development, LoParo appeared to defuse a second voting controversy, this one involving Montgomery County and a requirement in state law that voter registration cards be printed on thick, 80-pound stock paper.

Secretary of state employees are not the "paper weight police," LoParo said. He said employees would not go to county boards of election to check the paper weight of voter registration forms arriving in the mail. At a news conference here to announce the lawsuit, state Democratic Party Chairman Denny White said Ohio has a "secretary of state now that's purposely trying to take your right away from your vote and my vote of being counted.

"That's what this is all about . . . . He's elected to see that people can vote, not to stop people from voting. That's what Blackwell is trying to do." The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo by the Ohio and Sandusky County Democratic parties.

LoParo called White's charge "nonsense."

He said that 28 states have the same or more restrictive requirements on where so-called "provisional ballots" may be cast. Provisional ballots allow a voter whose eligibility is in question to cast a ballot that is kept separate from regular ballots until election officials can verify the voter's eligibility. The lawsuit focuses primarily on a Sept. 16 directive from Blackwell to county boards of election and what it said about voters who move from one precinct to another within the same county, but don't their registration with the address change.

The directive said that under Ohio law, these voters may the address change at their new precinct on Election Day and cast a provisional ballot at that precinct. The vote would be counted when election officials verify the registration. According to the directive, if the poll worker determines the voter's address is not in the precinct where he or she shows up to vote, the poll worker must call the elections board and get the location of the polling place for the correct precinct for the voter.

The directive also said that before a poll worker provides a provisional ballot, the worker must confirm that the voter's address is within the precinct.

The lawsuit alleges the federal Help America Vote Act requires that states permit voters to cast a provisional ballot upon "affirmation" the voter is registered in the proper jurisdiction – county – and is eligible to vote in the federal election, even if the voter resides in another precinct.

LoParo said that Blackwell appointed a bipartisan commission to develop the state's plan for the Help America Vote Act and the plan was posted in the Federal Registry. The commission evaluated the plan to make sure Ohio law on provisional voting was consistent with federal law, LoParo said.

At the news conference, Democratic Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy said the provisional ballot restrictions hurt Democrats more because low-income voters, who tend to be Democrats, move more frequently than other voters.

In Montgomery County, Steve Harsman, deputy director of the county board of elections, said that in the past, the board counted so-called "wrong precinct" provisional ballots if they were cast at the wrong precinct through no fault of the voters. This would not be permitted under Blackwell's directive, he said. Harsman said that in 2000, about 840 so-called "wrong precinct" ballots were counted in Montgomery County, more than the 537-vote margin by which President Bush won Florida over Al Gore in the presidential election.

The lawsuit requests that a judge declare Blackwell's directive to county boards of election in violation of federal law and that the secretary issue a new directive that complies with federal law.

Blackwell earlier had told county boards of elections to follow the requirement about using the thick paper on voter registration cards. In Montgomery County, elections officials are mailing new cards to voters if they get registrations on paper thinner than required. If they have a backlog by the Monday registration deadline, voters might not have a chance to get the correct paperwork in, Harsman has said.

LoParo said the paper weight requirement is in place because registration forms are made to be mailed like postcards and must be thick enough to withstand Postal Service sorters.