Judge Rules for Democrats in Dispute Over Ohio Voting
By JAMES DAO and KATE ZERNIKE  New York Times

Published: October 15, 2004

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 14 - A federal judge in Toledo ordered this state's Republican secretary of state on Thursday to count so-called provisional ballots filed in the wrong precincts, a victory for Democrats who contend such ballots are more likely to be cast by low-income and minority voters than others.
The ruling, which could prove crucial in a close election, came as partisan battles over voting rules and voter registration escalated in swing states across the nation.

In Oregon and Nevada, officials were looking into claims that a voter registration company owned by a Republican strategist had shredded Democratic forms or pressed voters to register Republican.

The decision Thursday, by Judge James G. Carr of United States District Court in Toledo, blocked a directive by J. Kenneth Blackwell, the secretary of state, that election workers not give provisional ballots to people who appear at the wrong precincts.

A 2002 law says that voters whose names do not appear on a precinct's rolls should be given provisional ballots, which require them to sign affidavits saying they are eligible to vote in that "jurisdiction." Their votes are set aside while election workers determine whether those people are eligible to vote.

Provisional ballots are meant to ensure that people are not disenfranchised because of administrative errors or because they moved.

Under Mr. Blackwell's directive, the word "jurisdiction" was interpreted to mean precinct, and he ordered that provisional ballots not be given to voters who turned up at the wrong precincts. He said polling workers should instead direct those people to the correct polling stations.

But the Ohio Democratic Party sued, saying that in Election Day confusion, voters might be unable to locate their correct precincts. They said lower-income people moved frequently and were more likely to go to the wrong precincts. They asserted that the word "jurisdiction" referred to counties, and that voters should get provisional ballots as long as they are in the right counties.

Judge Carr agreed. If the law on provisional voting, he wrote, "saves but a single vote, its purposes will have been accomplished, and its adoption justified."

A spokesman for the secretary of state said Judge Carr had misinterpreted the federal law and that Mr. Blackwell would appeal the ruling.

Similar lawsuits on provisional ballots have been filed in Michigan, Colorado and Florida. A Missouri judge has already ruled against the Democrats in a case filed there.

Meanwhile, the Oregon secretary of state's office said the state was conducting a criminal investigation into complaints that an Arizona company, Sproul & Associates, had pressured people to register as Republican. The company is owned by Nathan Sproul, the former director of the Arizona Republican Party.

Several libraries across Oregon also complained that Mr. Sproul had asked them in letters to set up voter registration drives on their premises under the name America Votes, which he described as a nonpartisan effort. That name is already claimed by another nonpartisan drive.

Mr. Sproul said in an interview that his company sought to register Republicans, but that his employees were instructed to submit forms from anyone who asked to be registered, and that his company had submitted registrations from Democrats and independents in other states. He said that the library letter was a misunderstanding, that he did not realize the name America Votes was already claimed and that he intended the effort to be nonpartisan.

In Nevada, the state Democratic Party filed a lawsuit seeking to extend the deadline for registration for those who believed their forms had been destroyed, citing news reports that Sproul employees had shredded Democratic registration forms and had been told to register only Republicans. The secretary of state's office said it would review the accusation, which the company said came from a disgruntled former employee.

"There are a couple of isolated allegations that we're taking very seriously and looking at," Mr. Sproul said, "but they're by far the minority of incidents."