Déjà vu already

Editorial in Cincinnati Post  06 October 2004
The general election is nearly a month away, but already Ohio is starting to resemble Florida in the month following the 2000 presidential vote.

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the state's chief elections officer, has been embroiled in fights for more than a year now concerning everything from electronic voting machines (his push to have them installed for the 2004 elections was rebuffed, mainly because of security concerns) to Ralph Nader (because of allegedly fraudulent petition signatures and other deficiencies, Blackwell has ruled that Nader's name won't appear on Ohio ballots).

A conservative Republican who has tangled with leading members of his own party, Blackwell has already been called the next Katherine Harris (she of Florida's Election 2000 infamy) by Democratic activists. Internet denizens from across the political spectrum have called him far worse; the language in some of the e-mails reaching Ohio newspapers would make sailors blush.

Now Blackwell is embroiled in what might prove to be the nastiest fight of all, one involving "provisional'' ballots.

Over the past year, activists have registered more than 600,000 new voters in Ohio, including about 63,000 in Hamilton County. The total at Monday's deadline for the Nov. 2 election had topped 7.7 million, well above the 7.5 million registered for the 2000 presidential election.

Given all those new voters, and all those who have moved since the last election (more than 51,000 in Hamilton County alone), it's widely anticipated that many Ohioans won't be sure of where they should vote on election day. Some interest groups notably the Ohio Democratic Party want Blackwell to authorize precinct poll workers to issue provisional ballots to those whose names don't show up on their list of eligible voters, with the guarantee that these ballots would be counted separately if and when the voter's eligibility was confirmed.

Ohio law, however, prohibits voting, or attempting to vote, "in a precinct in which that person is not a legally qualified elector,'' and Blackwell has taken the position that provisional ballots can only be issued and voted at the county board of elections headquarters or at a location specified by the board. This has been the practice in Ohio for more than a decade, Blackwell argues, and is one adopted in similar or more restrictive form by 27 other states.

In lawsuits filed in federal court in Toledo, Ohio, Democrats and a coalition of labor and other organizations argued that the federal Help America Vote Act requires precinct poll workers to issue and accept provisional ballots. Blackwell, however, said the federal law defers to state law and practice on this point.

Officials at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, meanwhile, have already said they intend to defy Blackwell's directive concerning provisional ballots. That prompted Blackwell to issue a furious "cease and desist'' letter Tuesday, threatening to remove board members and the executive director if they continue to defy his order.

Already both the Bush and Kerry camps have lined up armies of lawyers to monitor the elections in Ohio. With the stakes so high, and with the polls showing Ohio so evenly divided, it takes no imagination at all to see a repeat of the litigation that tied up Florida and the 2000 presidential election for so long.

It's just as well, therefore, that the legal fights over foreseeable issues the handling of provisional ballots, for example are already under way, and it's important that they be resolved promptly.

But it's also important to demand some good behavior from all involved. The amount of venom spewed already in this campaign is alarming, and it's insidious. Whatever happens on Nov. 2, we're all going to have to get along afterward. So play fair.