Ohio Battles Over Tuesday's Early Voting

GOP Challenges Law Allowing Same-Day Registration And Early Balloting Weeks Before Election Day

(CBS/AP)  A battle over early voting in Ohio has brought a law passed by that state's Republican-controlled legislature three years ago to be challenged by the GOP before a federal court, while a separate lawsuit brought before the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court is expected to be decided Monday.

The prize could be thousands of traditionally elusive voters in hard-fought Ohio who would have the chance to register and vote on the same day.

The one-stop voting Tuesday through Oct. 6 would be especially convenient for those Democratic-leaning voters who have traditionally had more trouble getting to the polls.

It's a reality not lost on two parties locked in a tight race four years after President Bush's 118,000 vote victory in Ohio gave him a second term.

Ohio is one of more than 30 states that allow registered voters to cast an early ballot. Eight states allow voters to register and vote on Election Day, while North Carolina allows the practice during early voting.

In the six states that had same-day registration and voting before 2006, as well as in North Dakota (which doesn't have voter registration), turnout has been 10 percent to 17 percent higher than the national average, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The battle rests on a reading of the law by the state's Democratic Secretary of State, which has been rejected by some of the state's Republican election officials.


Recused

On Thursday two Ohio Supreme Court justices removed themselves from cases involving challenges to early voting procedures, clearing the way for a Democrat to join the all-Republican court making decisions in this hotly-contested swing state.

Justices Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and Maureen O'Connor stepped down from deciding a challenge to a weeklong period beginning Sept. 30 during which new voters can register to vote and cast an absentee ballot on the same day.

The justices also recused themselves from two separate cases in which voters are challenging Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's decision to reject absentee ballot applications administered by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain because they weren't filled out properly.

The McCain campaign is reported to have mailed out over a million absentee ballot applications in several states which contained errors. Application forms sent to Ohio voters contained an extra (unnecessary) box which, if not checked, indicates the voter is not eligible to vote.

Hundreds of applications were ruled ineligible in Hamilton County alone.

Republicans have said it's a blatant attempt by Brunner to disenfranchise Republican voters, while Brunner has said the law is clear that boxes on such forms must be checked.

Per normal protocol, the two justices did not provide a reason for stepping aside. But both Republicans are running for re-election on this year's ballot.

Stratton will be replaced by William Wolff Jr., a Democrat on the Second District Court of Appeals. O'Connor will be replaced by Republican Lynn Slaby of the Ninth District Court of Appeals. Both are retiring after completing their current terms.

Chief Justice Thomas Moyer wanted to ensure that there's confidence that the decisions are made by an independent and impartial panel, said Ohio Supreme Court spokesman Chris Davey.

"Chief Justice Moyer wanted to find replacement judges for this case who will be retiring at the end of this term and would represent, to the extent possible, diversity of party affiliation," Davey said.

Ohio Republicans have accused Brunner of bold partisanship for instructing county boards of elections to have procedures in place to allow voters to register and vote on the same day from Sept. 30 through Oct. 6. They have said Ohio law requires voters to have been registered for at least 30 days before they can cast a ballot.

Brunner says the law recognizes a person to have voted when that ballot is counted on Nov. 4, not when it is cast.

The overlap between the beginning of absentee voting and the end of registration has been in law since 1981. Brunner has pointed out that it never got any attention until the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a bill in 2005 that enabled all Ohioans to vote absentee without having to provide a reason, such as being out of state. The Nov. 4 election marks the first time the law has applied during a presidential election year.

Democrat Barack Obama's campaign has said it will take advantage of the overlap period, and groups such as the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless have said they will drive homeless and low-income voters to the polls during the time.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Cleveland to declare that newly-registered Ohio voters must be allowed to vote absentee. The ACLU is concerned about the lawsuit before the Ohio Supreme Court, and filed the federal suit as a backstop measure in case the court rules against Brunner.

The organization said federal law is clear that voters cannot be required to register more than 30 days before an election.

The interpretation of state law advanced by Republicans would preclude some absentee voting even outside the weeklong window, said ACLU of Ohio staff attorney Carrie Davis.

The ACLU sued Madison County, where the county prosecutor advised the elections board not to allow voters to register and vote on the same day next week. Prosecutors in Holmes and Miami counties gave their boards the same advice.

Madison County, just southwest of Columbus, will follow the prosecutor's advice instead of Brunner's unless the Ohio Supreme Court rules in her favor, said Board of Elections Director Tim Ward.

If no court decision comes down before Tuesday, the county will not permit same-day registration and voting, Ward said.

Meanwhile, on Friday the Ohio GOP filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the early voting period. Republicans say state law does not allow same-day registration and voting.

Brunner spokesman Jeff Ortega said, "It appears that some partisans continue to inject chaos and confusion into our election system just five days before early voting starts."

Amid the legal wrangling, preparations for the window are progressing.


Registering The Disenfranchised

Obama's campaign will send staffers to the Ohio State University, the nation's largest campus with about 53,000 students, to encourage early voting among the sometimes hard-to-engage young. Polls show the Democrat is easily carrying the demographic against Republican John McCain.

The campaign plans to arrange concerts from John Legend, who will hold early voting rallies on Monday in Columbus, Springfield, Dayton and Cincinnati. For campuses far from election boards, Obama aides are organizing car pools to make sure students get to the polls.

On Saturday, the campaign targeted the 100,000-strong college football crowd at Ohio Stadium with a flyover advertising early voting and visits from staffers to surrounding bars.

Beyond colleges, the campaign knows it has to do well in Cuyahoga County, the state's largest and the center of Democratic power in Ohio.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless believes it can round up 2,000 people from homeless shelters in the Cleveland area and get them to polling places. A donated van will shuttle voters from two shelters, including the city's largest downtown. Seventeen other shelters are providing their own transportation.

"It'll be fantastic," said Brian Davis, the coalition's executive director.

Project Vote, which pushes for greater voting participation, will go door to door in minority neighborhoods and use vans to transport people to election sites in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo.

"The populations that we focus on, the lower income and minority populations, move more often," said Teresa James, an attorney working in northeast Ohio for Project Vote. "They're also more likely to have jobs that aren't flexible in terms of voting."

The progressive Rock the Vote will have a bus tour through Columbus, Dayton, Wilberforce, Athens, Cleveland and Bowling Green - all metro areas or college towns - to emphasize the convenience of the calendar overlap.

Cleveland City Councilwoman Stephanie Howse said activists and Obama volunteers are spreading the word in her ward.

"It's just one piece of our much larger approach to early voting to turn out as many people as possible to get those votes in the bank," Obama spokesman Isaac Baker said.

The McCain campaign didn't directly address whether it had plans to take advantage of the window.

"We have a comprehensive grassroots program designed to turn out McCain-Palin supporters once early voting begins," said spokesman Paul Lindsay.

[ibzjem]

The GOP in Michigan are trying to prevent people who have been evicted from their homes from being able to use that address for their voter registration.
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I''ve read about that and I don''t think it''s really true, but it is something to monitor.

[kansas1946]

In the six states that had same-day registration and voting before 2006, as well as in North Dakota (which doesn''t have voter registration), turnout has been 10 percent to 17 percent higher than the national average, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
**********************************

Just figures. The Republicans pass a law screeching about how it will help more Americans vote, and now are crying because those "Americans" might accidentally be Democrats. So the conclusion is that no matter what the Republicans say about duty, patriotism, allowing all Americans the chance to vote, they don''t mean it. What they mean is that all REPUBLICANS need to have a chance to vote.

[mytoosense]

The GOP in Michigan are trying to prevent people who have been evicted from their homes from being able to use that address for their voter registration.

Why? They must think that democrats are more likely to be evicted.

Or maybe the Michigan GOP think that republicans are more likely to be blamed for this housing crisis by those out there who have lost their homes.

Either way, it stinks and the GOP should be ashamed of themselves, that is if they are capable of being ashamed of anything beyond losing an election or losing money.

[newsjunky5]

This raises an interesting question:
If you could undermine the democratic process to win political office, would you?

[hologram5]

This is the problem with our once great country, people are too busy pointing the finger at others to wake up and see what is really happening around us. The elitists are taking over and destroying our economy. The bankers that need to be bailed out are the ones destroying us. These parties are also so diametrically opposed that they lean on each other for support. They will get their way whether we think we are voting for something good or not.

[tbuckl]

Thomas Jefferson was so right when he said the following, I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by all future generations, under the name of funding, is but swindling the state of being yet to come on a large scale. Now the American banking system and its Barbaric CEOs have taken the American people to the clearers. Thomas Jefferson correctly used the word SWINDLING when writing his thoughts about banks and aristocratic tyrants that would infect our soceity. He knew these aristocratic tyrants would infest our soceity just like they did so many centuries ago. I wish he had been wrong, because I am starting to think something else he said may also be true. "The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

[antoniof123]

Hey GOP last I checked voting is a right.

If you win then America loses typical Republicans can''t win except by cheating.

[bks59]

Posted by CBSCensorsU at 08:15 AM : Sep 29, 2008

Typical neocon, can''t tell fiction from reality, it explains a lot.

[ioweign]

Barack Obama was in constant touch with Secretary Paulson almost every single day, sometimes several times a day for the last two weeks. Barack Obama was the first person to speak and lay out at that meeting at the White House for about seven or eight minutes the entire parameters of what we had resolved. John McCain, when offered the opportunity to speak, passed, didn''t speak until the very end, and when he spoke, did not offer a solution and did not say what he would support. The fact is that on a Monday of about a week ago, John McCain said the fundamentals of our economy are strong. Within a few days, John McCain was suspending his campaign because of the greatest crisis since World War II. He suspended his campaign and it took him 22 hours to get from New York to Washington, a one-hour flight, had time to go do Katie Couric in an interview, had time to give a speech to the Clinton millennium, and when he got here, he wound up %u2014 I mean, he said he was going to interrupt his campaign to come down and save the negotiations. Most people believe what he did was interrupt the negotiations to come down and save his campaign.

[ioweign]

THE LIBERAL MEDIA IS MAKING IT SOUND LIKE OBAMA HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS- THAT IT IS BECAUSE OF HIM THIS BAILOUT IS HAPPENING, THAT MCCAIN DID NOTHING, THAT THE DECISION TO GO FORWARD WITH THIS PLAN DEFINES OBAMA''''S WHOLE PLANS-IF ANY OF YOU BELEIVE THIS """BS""" YOU ARE VERY, VERY EASILY DUPED AND INCREDIBLY NAIVE.

Posted by john43218 at 07:07 AM : Sep 29, 2008

JukeBox Johnnie...

Dec 14, 2000: As Congress heads for Christmas recess, Sen. Gramm attaches 262-page amendment to an omnibus appropriations bill. Commodity Futures Modernization Act will deregulate derivatives trading, give rise to Enron debacle, and open door to an explosion in new, unregulated securities.

March 25, 2008: In speech on housing market, Sen. McCain calls for easing crisis by "removing regulatory, accounting, and tax impediments to raising capital."

[palin0808]

How can the GOP still exist in America? Do we NEVER make any attempts at ridding our country of terrorists?


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Posted by hungry1968-1 at 12:43 AM : Sep 29, 2008

By terrorist you must mean Obama and his anti white anti American views and friends right. I know you can''t be refering to Palin and McCain as terrorist, you don''t get any more american then those two.

Obama bin Biden is the ticket that has terrorist ties. I bet Obama has like 3 half brothers that are in the terrost network as we speak

[sandy777-2009]

Military voters are usually brain washed throughout their training and service. Being against the GOP can be as bad as telling people your gay, in the military. You people like to call that democracy.

Posted by lochlan at 08:37 PM : Sep 28, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I refused to vote for Nixon (tricky dicky) when I was in the US Army and I even wrote my refusal to vote for Nixon on my absentee ballot. I didn''t care what anyone thought sbout that.

[bodenky]

I say; let people vote, as long as they are eligible why does it matter when they do it.

For those of you who think CBS is somehow biased because they wont let you state something that is proven to be a lie. You should realize that what you''re saying is a lie.

[usa1st]

All these comments and the election just prove a major point... the two worst things to ever happen to the USA are the democratic and republican parties.

[jimjus]

McCain is trying to protect people having more than 7 houses. Obama is trying to protect the people owing single house. That is the different

[jimjus]

People are fed up with GOP gimmicks. This time it won%u2019t work

[palin0808]

Obama is a perfect example and or symbol of the economic mess we are in right now.

We are having to bail out people who moved into homes they couldn''t afford or didn''t earn. Just like Obama is trying to move into a home (white house)he hasn''t earned(aka junior senator).

[tfheringer]

So exactly what do we do with Florida and Ohio? Forbid them to vote, because they are incapable of getting it right? I think what we need to do is re run the Civil War, remember those states succeeded from the Union and we all know how that worked. The problem is this country is now so factionalized that getting everyone to agree is impossible. If Obama wins this election I will not consider him my president, but they President of a power usurping our government.

[afmca]

Somehow my first comments have been erased. I called the Republican politicians in Ohio fascists. When I looked up the definition it so seemed to fit. They voted for a law and now want to repeal it when the votes don''t go their way. Not quite American - I think Russia operates that way. Maybe Republicans can call themselves the party of Putin instead of Palin. Doesn''t it seem strange that the remaining two troublespots when it comes to elections still seem to reside in Florida and Ohio .. I think it is time to recognize that these two states are incapable of performing their Constitutional duties.

[lochlan-2009]

Tiger8055

Military voters are usually brain washed throughout their training and service. Being against the GOP can be as bad as telling people your gay, in the military. You people like to call that democracy.