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My point with this post was add to Tim’s advice by providing the numbers for local media outlets who will be very interested in hearing your story if your voting status is challenged.

What exactly is the etiquette on commenting to parallel blogs anyway?

I am who I purport to be. My true name’s Matthew, and I am a friend and classmate to Jerid. From what I know of you, this information should sufficiently outline my ideology and profession to satisfy your immediate curiosity without revealing that which I wish to keep private. If you wish, contact Jerid

As for my motive? My motive is to get as many people as possible to vote. Your recommendation is directly counter to my purposes, and therefore I spoke out.

If this were 2004, I wouldn’t have any problem with your recommendation to protest. Given that this isn’t 2004, that Jennifer Brunner is not Ken Blackwell, and that the polling procedures have significantly changed since you last participated, your recommendations are counter-productive in their obsolescence.

Again, as someone speaking with knowledge of current polling procedures, I recommend the following:

If a voter suspects he has been improperly given a provisional ballot as part of a suppression effort by a partisan judge, that voter should immediately speak with another judge about the issue. The second judge is guaranteed to be in a different party from the first judge.

If, after speaking with a second or even third judge, a voter is still asked to take a provisional ballot, I do not recommend protesting to force a regular ballot. First, the delay caused by the protest necessarily increases voting lines and thereby reduces voter turnout. Second, a regular ballot given in violation of polling procedure just to placate an obnoxious person undermines the legitimacy of regular ballots as a whole. Third, and most importantly, the protest’s force, interference, and intimidation subjects the voter to a fifth degree felony and potential loss of voting privileges.

Steps to avoid provisional ballots:

1. Be at the right precinct. Look it up before you go. When at the polling location, if you are confused about the proper table, ask two different judges about where to go. Every judge will wear an identifying tag.

2. Bring ID, or go home and get it if you forgot it. ID is expansive, and includes everything from Driver’s Licenses to Public School IDs, Tax Bills, Government Checks, Government Letters, Notices, Utility Bills, Bank Statements, Paychecks, Grade Reports, Transcripts, Court Documents, and so on. If a document has your name and address listed when you registered, then it’s a valid ID. A photo is not required. Passports and documents from the Board of Elections, however, are NOT valid ID.

your suggestion that this isn’t 2004, and therefore you can just happily vote provisional because the poll worker tells you to, is simply irrelevant. provisional ballots were bad then, and they’re worse now, and it is more likely than ever that a provisional ballot will be cast in error.

and the notion that a successful protest, resulting in a regular ballot being cast, makes me wonder about your motive.

1. Partisan poll observers are allowed so long as they don’t interfere. They have absolutely no right to challenge, or speak with anyone other than the pollworkers themselves. The Ohio SOS has made this very clear in the training. Once a poll observer interferes with, or even -delays- the voting process, that observer is kicked out (after one warning).

2. Virtually any form of current ID + address is accepted for a regular ballot. Even a utility bill or a fishing license is accepted. The singular exception is passports. Don’t ask me why.

3. For every one GOP judge, there’s also a Democratic and Independent judge. If someone believes they are the victim of a partisan suppression, all they need to do is speak with another judge.

If the judges deem that a person requires a provisional ballot, no amount of protest will give them the regular ballot. Refusing to take the provisional ballot, and remaining in the polling place, will result in one of two scenarios. 1) The person will be forcibly removed for interfering with a polling location, or 2) The person’s continuing protest will cause long delays which lead to fewer total votes as others waiting in line leave.

This ain’t 2004.

anastasia, you’re playing their game.