Posted on 09/11/2008 10:59:13 AM PDT by weegee
In the 2004 presidential race, Democrats cried foul when Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell initially ordered that voter-registration cards be rejected if the paper used wasn't thick enough.
Now, Republican John McCain's campaign is complaining that Blackwell's successor, Democrat Jennifer Brunner, has decided that certain absentee-ballot applications should be rejected if a box on the form isn't checked.
McCain's camp is worried that potentially thousands of requests for absentee ballots will be rejected and voters forced to reapply -- if they get notice that their application wasn't accepted, said Jon Seaton, McCain's regional campaign manager.
At issue is a mailing that McCain sent last week to more than 1 million Ohioans urging them to vote early by requesting an absentee ballot. The form included space for voters to provide the required personal information.
But Brunner ordered last week that if voters do not check a box next to a statement that says, "I am a qualified elector and would like to receive an absentee ballot," the application should be rejected and the voter notified that his or her request is deficient.
Brunner, who said county elections officials had asked about the issue, argued that by not checking the box, voters would not meet a legal requirement that every request contain a statement that the person is a qualified elector.
She noted that on the state's application form, there is a statement directly above a signature line that says the applicant attests to being a qualified voter. McCain's form has that statement next to the box to be checked.
"Failure to check the box leaves both the applicant and the board of elections without verification that the applicant is a 'qualified elector,' " Brunner wrote, recommending that those voters be sent a letter with the state's form.
But Seaton, who did not suggest that partisan motives were at play, argued that the forms mailed by the campaign should be accepted as long as all other required information is provided.
He also said that similar absentee-ballot forms sent out last fall by U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, when he was running in a special election to replace the late Paul Gillmor, were accepted even if the box wasn't checked. "The form includes all the necessary requirements and has been used in past elections, so this election should be no different," Seaton said. "Qualified voters who request absentee ballots should receive them."
Brunner spokesman Jeff Ortega said no questions were raised about Latta's mailing at the time but that state law requires, among other things, both the voter's signature and a statement that the person is a qualified elector.
"This office believes the law is crystal clear on this issue," Ortega said.
How much you want to bet all the applications with last names like “Lopez” and “Menendez” and “Rodriguz” will be upheld even if they didn’t check the box?
Sorry, the Dems got us on this one. It was stupid to put the box on the form. It was stupid to make up a new form at all. They should have exactly duplicated whatever form the state uses.
We should storm her office and force her to back down.
They ain’t gonna be able to rig the vote, since the gap BO looses by will be to large...
Then they should be able to get a provisional ballot, right?
If McCain’s people added such a box, showing it as a requirement, then it is required.
I can’t fault the officials who want to enforce the rules McCain made.
I’m surprised how many people are blindly opposing the Secretary of State. It was stupid of McCain to use anything other than the exact standard form. Do Freepers REALLY want to issue ballots to people who have a big unchecked box by the line “I am eligible to vote?”
Well, there aren’t many of those in Ohio.
We have hockey moms and female deer hunters, here.I think if the vote isn't close, this time, GOP can take the state. I was hearing positive comments about McCain from some old hippies back a couple of years ago, so they won't feel like traitors for voting for McCain.
btt
The media will probably describe it as a dirty trick designed to somehow steal the election for McCain.
Remember 2000 in Florida where the dems dispatched a memo and lawyers to disqualify absentee (military) voters? They are organized about this stuff.
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