Suit says Cuyahoga County board 'botched' voter registrations
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
John Caniglia
Cleveland Plain Dealer Reporter

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has botched the registrations of more than 10,000 voters, preventing them from heading to the ballot box next week, according to a lawsuit filed late Monday.

The Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections, the Alliance of Cleveland HUD Tenants and seven residents sued the board in federal court and claimed election board employees failed to enter new registrations on voter rolls, changes sent in by voters and enter addresses correctly.
The suit wants the board to place the voters on the county rolls before the election, and it seeks to have a monitor placed on the case to help in the process.

Election officials said they had not yet seen the suit.

The board has received more than 344,000 voter registration forms this year. The volume of registration forms is more than three times greater than the amount the board handled in 2000. The board has hired additional temporary workers to work night shifts typing in voter information.

There are more than 1 million registered voters in the county, including 823,000 active voters - those who have voted or filed paperwork recently with the board.

Attorneys Avery Friedman, Stephen G. Thomas and Sarah J. Moore said the board failed to process voter registration applications correctly and failed to notify applicants of any potential problems.

Venita Meridith of Bedford registered twice "just to make sure," according to the suit. She never heard from the board until she went there Oct. 2. A clerk told her that she wasn't registered but to wait a couple of weeks. She submitted a third form but has not yet heard from the board.

The attorneys said federal law prevents election officials from denying people the right to vote because of an error or omission on a voter registration application where such error is not material in determining whether a person is qualified to vote in the election.

The suit said that once a person registers to vote, the information is placed on a registration card and entered into a computer database.

If the board becomes aware of a discrepancy or believes the information is incomplete, then the applicant is placed on the "Fatal Pending List." If the person can be notified and the error can be fixed, the person can vote. If not, there is little chance.

On Sept. 17, there were more than 10,000 names on the list. As of Monday, the suit claims, few errors have been corrected.