Layout Confuses Some Ohio Absentee Voters

CONNIE MABIN

Associated Press   20 October 2004

CLEVELAND - Absentee voters in the most populous county of a critical state in the presidential election are complaining about a ballot layout that they say might prompt some people to choose the wrong candidate, or none at all.

Another voting issue was left in limbo for Ohioans Wednesday when a federal judge rejected Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's latest order on how to handle people who try to vote in the wrong precinct. The dispute means election boards may receive two sets of orders as they wait for an appeals court to rule.

The absentee voting problem in Cuyahoga County occurs when voters align the ballot portion, which shows a candidate's name, a number and an arrow, with the punch card, which also bears numbers. The pieces are designed to align in the voting machines used on Election Day, but the numbers don't always line up for people voting absentee.

The elections board in the traditionally Democratic county has fielded numerous calls from voters confused about the layout of absentee ballots.

The county, which includes Cleveland, is receiving more than 2,000 requests for absentee ballots every day. Both presidential campaigns have focused on the county in a state both candidates consider crucial to what's expected to be a close election Nov. 2.

If absentee voters cast their vote by trying to line up the arrow with the punch card, they could punch the wrong number.

"It's incredibly confusing," said Aaron Greenspan, a 21-year-old absentee voter from Shaker Heights. "Every day that goes by, more people are going to send in these ballots and more of them are guaranteed to be wrong."

Absentee voters are supposed to ignore the arrows and punch out the chad that matches the candidate's number, Jacqueline Maiden, a coordinator with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said Wednesday.

Maiden said the same ballot system has been used for previous elections, and that officials may be getting more calls from confused voters because many people who have requested absentee ballots have never voted before.

The instructions tell absentee voters to punch the corresponding number but don't specifically say to disregard the arrows.

In the statewide voting issue, U.S. District Judge James Carr of Toledo rejected an order from the secretary of state in which voters would be informed their entire ballot could be thrown out if they vote in the wrong precinct.

Carr gave Blackwell a revised order in which voters would be told that only their ballots for federal races - including the president - will be counted if they vote in the wrong place. Election boards may soon receive both versions of the order as Ohio waits for a ruling from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Democrats sued after Blackwell, a Republican, issued his first order last month saying voters would not be allowed to cast a vote unless they were in their correct precinct.

Blackwell says allowing voters to cast a ballot wherever they show up, even if they're not registered to vote there, is a recipe for Election Day chaos.

Democrats say the order could restrict the number of poor and minority voters, who move more often.

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