Initital Reports of Voting Problems in Ohio

By On November 4, 2008 · 4 Comments

I’ve heard reports already of people being forced to vote provisionally because of long lines. I can’t verify this – it could just be that they are being asked to use regular paper ballots, which is totally fine.

But I’ve heard from multiple sources now that people are being turned away or forced to vote provisionally because the address on their state-issued ID is not current – which is total bullshit.

This is the old rule and, word has it that it’s really old poll workers who are trying to enforce it.

Pay attention!

THEY CAN NOT GIVE YOU A PROVISIONAL BALLOT BECAUSE OF LONG LINES. Refuse the ballot and ask for a regular paper ballot if this happens. Ask to talk to a different (preferably YOUNGER) poll worker immediately. Remember – regular paper ballots are fine.


UPDATE: I’ve heard this has most likely been misreported and it was actually regular paper ballots not provisional ballots.

THEY CAN NOT GIVE YOU A PROVISIONAL BALLOT BECAUSE YOUR ADDRESS IS NOT UP TO DATE. As long as your drivers license or state-issued ID is not expired, they MUST LET YOU VOTE. Again – ask to talk to a different poll worker.

Evangelize!
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  • dirtgirl

    Here are the rules, straight from the Secretary of State. Print them out and take them to the polls.

  • Anastasia

    Actually, forcing people to vote provisional would INCREASE the length of the lines so if pollworkers are doing that, they are singularly inept. To me it’s obvious one of the things the GOP was hoping to accomplish with its over-the-top data-base match checks was to force as many people as possible to vote provisional, not to deprive them of their vote because contrary to rumours provisionals DO count if everything checks out, but in order to massively increase wait times for everybody.

    As for the address/ID thing, the voter should ask the poll worker to look in the manual that is in every precinct supply bag, and look for the rule. The address does NOT have to be the same. They really emphasized this in my poll worker training last month (No, I’m not working the polls. I have a temporary job that ends on Friday and trained just to be able to work the November 18 special election in case I didn’t have a job by then. So I’m not holding up the line by writing this!)

  • Modern Esquire

    Paper optical scan ballots are being given to voters waiting in long lines as a way to shorten the wait time under Secretary of State Jennifer Bruner’s recommendation. The paper ballots ARE NOT PROVISIONALS. They are being offered to give people the option of being able to vote sooner than it would take for an electronic voting machine to become available.

    The goal is that by giving voters this option, they can csat their ballots sooner, thus easing the conjestion of the lines, eases the wait times, and minimize the risk that people do not vote due to the wait time in the lines.

    Brunner ordered that the Board of Elections offer optical scan paper ballots whenever the lines for the electronic voting machines appear to be getting too long:

    http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/11/04/copy/paperwait.ART_ART_11-04-08_A1_HDBPPLJ.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

    Please update your post accordingly. These long line ballots are not provisionals and will not be treated as such.

  • http://www.plunderbund.com Eric

    Thanks Modern. Does sound like this was misinformation and that’s good news. ID issues are for real. See my latest post. Voters with low turn-away thresholds are very vulnerable to this.

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