Ohio Papers 'Prepare for the Worst'

By Shawn Moynihan   Editor and Publisher

Published: October 29, 2004 3:35 PM EDT

NEW YORK Rumors of voter intimidation. Allegations of fraud. Provisional ballots. Partisan challengers at polling places. Lawsuits. Counter-suits. Appeals.

In Ohio, where questions continue to swirl over voter eligibility, one thing is certain: Things aren't going to go smoothly come Election Day. And newspapers have their work cut out for them in covering the many issues that have thrown the voting process into chaos in the Buckeye State.

"We have to prepare for the worst," said Jean Dubail, city editor at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. The paper has 12 reporters covering the election exclusively including its one-man bureau in Cincinnati, where Bill Sloat continues to deliver the latest rulings from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Plain Dealer also brought in an extra political writer to aid in coverage of a state that Dubail said has become "the center of it all."

“We’re not used to this much attention,” said Louann Sharp, assistant managing editor at The Blade in Toledo. “We’re in the bull’s-eye.”

The Blade, which is devoting eight reporters to election coverage, reassigned its special projects editor to political editor in mid-September, “When we heard Ohio was going to be the new Florida,” said Sharp, referring to the closeness of the race and potential issues surrounding the vote.

But if the action gets heated at polling places, as it might, will anyone be there to cover it? One concern is just how many times the state election board will allow reporters to visit the polls. Dubail noted that in past elections, two or three visits to one polling place were allowed, but that was mostly to get pictures. This year, the election board may intervene and make access significantly more difficult for reporters.

Although the Plain Dealer plans systematic visits to the polls by reporters, Dubail conceded, "The law might not be on our side on this."

No matter how bad things get in Ohio next week, Mike Burbach, managing editor at the Akron Beacon Journal joked, "We're prepared for the police log to look different than usual for Tuesday."

One of the biggest issues in Ohio will be provisional ballots, which are given to voters who moved or changed their names and did not their registration. These ballots are held for 10 days while workers confirm the voter's eligibility before they are even counted.

Ohio law doesn't require poll workers to ask for identification for provisional ballots. It's not a stretch to say that next week, provisional ballots could be to Ohio what chads were to Miami-Dade County in the 2000 election debacle.

"Provisional ballots are going to be a very big deal," said Burbach. If the election in Ohio is close as many forecast the disputed votes could carry added weight, "and everything we see suggests it's going to be close," he added.

Still, things could be worse. The issue of voter registrations was made clearer this afternoon when 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati turned down several Republican appeals to restart hearings on thousands of voter registrations the party has contested. Republicans had sought this week to challenge 23,000 new voter registrations in 62 counties.

As Plain Dealer political writer Mark Naymik noted, "A lot of it may not be as bad as it could be, for the reason that a lot of it is being sorted out right now in the courts."

A seldom-invoked 1953 state law that allows challengers at the polls also promises to make things interesting. Challengers are representatives from each political party who are allowed to stay in polling places and speak up to "challenge" a person's right to vote.

Challengers have no official authority; ultimately it's up to the poll worker serving as presiding judge to determine whether the voter can cast a ballot. But imagine the potential for chaos if things get tense.

"It's a big issue that makes things a lot different from previous elections," the Beacon Journal's Burbach says. When people's right to vote is challenged, they get pretty angry, he pointed out.

In order to learn the limits of what a challenger can do, the Plain Dealer is sending several reporters to challenger training sessions to be held this weekend. "No one really knows how it's going to work," Dubail explained.

Noting the amount of litigation Ohio has seen thus far over the election and much more likely Sharp added, “I don’t know how we voted for this long without having problems.”