Cuyahoga Co. defies ballot order
Blackwell: Votes cast at wrong place won't count

By John McCarthy
The Associated Press  06 October 2004

COLUMBUS - The battle over ballots cast by voters whose names aren't on the books where they are voting escalated on Tuesday, with Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell promising to throw out votes cast at the wrong polling place.

Cuyahoga County's board of elections said Monday it would count such votes, defying a directive issued last month by Blackwell.

On Tuesday, Blackwell fired back with a letter to board Chairman Bob Bennett, saying "failure to comply with my lawful directives will result in official action, which may include removal of the board and its director."

Bennett, who also heads the Ohio Republican Party, did not return a telephone message seeking comment left with party spokesman Jason Mauk.

Voters in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, will be able to get provisional ballots even if they show up at the wrong polling place, said Michael Vu, a Democrat who is the elections director in Ohio's largest county.

That would violate Blackwell's directive that poll workers should tell voters showing up at the wrong precinct where their correct polling place is. Ohio law states that no one shall "vote or attempt to vote in any primary, special, or general election in a precinct in which that person is not a legally qualified elector."

Provisional ballots are provided to voters who have moved but not d their registration with the boards. They are set aside and inspected by Democratic and Republican board employees to ensure they are valid. More than 100,000 provisional votes were cast in the 2000 election.

That equaled about 2 percent of the total vote in the presidential election in which President Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore by 3.6 percentage points in Ohio. A statewide election decided by less than one-fourth of 1 percent of the total vote results in an automatic recount under Ohio law.

In his letter to Bennett, Blackwell said the board's action was a "cynical attempt to cause voter confusion" to create an impression that votes tallied at the wrong polling place would be counted.

"Your actions would disenfranchise thousands of Ohio voters by accepting provisional ballots, which based upon Ohio law cannot be counted," wrote Blackwell, also a Republican.

The Ohio Democratic Party sued to overturn Blackwell's ruling, saying a 2002 federal law allows voters to cast provisional ballots at any polling place in their home county. They said the ruling by Blackwell disproportionately affects low-income voters who tend to move more often.