Posted on 10/30/2008 5:44:14 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
COLUMBUS, Ohio — If the outcome of next week’s presidential election is close, this precariously balanced state could be the place where the two parties begin filing the inevitable lawsuits over voting irregularities, experts say.
The battles could be over the rules for a recount, or how to deal with voters who were not added to the rolls even though they registered properly and on time. Lawyers could fight over how to count the paper ballots used when the electronic machines break down, or whether a judge was correct in deciding to keep certain polls open late.
But the most likely source of litigation is the state’s heavy use of provisional ballots, which are issued when a voter’s identity or registration cannot immediately be verified or when polls stay open late. Ohio has a history of requiring large numbers of voters to use these ballots, which are easy to disqualify and are not counted until after the election.
“Provisional ballots are really the Achilles’ heel of our electoral process, because in a close race that is the pressure point lawyers use to try to undo the results,” said Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University who is one of the nation’s foremost experts on voting litigation. “The larger the number of provisional ballots cast in a state, the more vulnerable the Achilles’ heel, and Ohio has for a couple of elections used more of these ballots than most any other state.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don’t think Ohio is going to be close enough to fight over. McCain wins by 3-4 %
ROFLOL!!! This was the mantra of the NY Times in 2004 and they made zero difference. This time the provisional ballots will even have less of an impact as McCain wins bigger! :)
Is this the same NY Times that shows the Lib Messiah up by 11%?
Is this the same NY Times that shows the Lib Messiah up by 11%?
The latest state polls show Barack Obama with an edge of from three to nine points over John McCain, leaving Ohio in the tossup category.
Does this sound like 2004 or what? The minute they started seeing they wouldn’t win OH, they started talking about the “provisional ballots.”
i’m fed up with state governments that continuously do not close the gaps.
The NYT thinks it could be close? After all these months of saying otherwise??
LOL
I think it might be 7-10% by the time all is said and done.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I asked her what happen to the Ohio GOP. She said Dewine turned Rino by joining the gang of 12 and Gov. Taft was a crook and the GOP was sitting on their hands.
But since Jennifer Brunner did all the GOP and some democrats are livid. She says Ohio is McCain.
It used to be that Provisional ballots in Ohio were only counted if the election was within 2-3% otherwse they didn’t bother. That is why I don’t like to early vote.
The provisional ballots will be pro-McCain. Bank on it. It’s not as if the OH SOS is making all the fraudsters use provisional ballots.
Republicans requested a *lot* of absentee ballots (courtesy of McCain’s GOTV effort that focuses on absentee ballots). If you request an absentee ballot, but then decide to vote in person, you have to vote via provisional ballot!
Thanks for the info.
Here in California,...you can take your Absentee Ballot to the polling place and drop it off...according to my son.
I was just thinking the same thing...didn’t their own poll predict a huge 0’Messiah landslide?
You can do that in Floriduh as well.
My husband has been away for a long time. He’s going to arrive tomorrow. An absentee ballot will be greeting him about 12 inches before his wife. :-) We’ll drop it off in person right away before flying off for the election week (in Chicago, of all places!).
I taught him the pleasure of going to a bookstore, taking one Obama book, and placing it prominently in the Fantasy section.
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