Hamilton County,Ohio Juvenile Court Judge dispute headed toward Supreme Court

Hamilton County voters last November went the polls to try to elect a juvenile court judge. That still hasn't happened and now we might be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The underlying issue," it's summed up, "is that there were voters who went to the right polling place, but voted or were directed to vote in the wrong precinct. In other words, right church, but the wrong pew. Over 280,000 people voted on Nov. 2. That included 11,000 people who cast provisional ballots, 800 of which have been questioned."

"As it currently stands," Cincinnati-based WCPO reported last January, "Republican John Williams leads Democrat Tracie Hunter by 23 votes. However, a provisional vote question has led to orders from U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott (here & here) on counting hundreds of ballots, rulings (here, here & here) from former Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and opinions from the Ohio Supreme Court." The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has now heard it, too.(Here)

Now Hamilton County’s Board of Elections has apparently decided to appeal the 6th. Circuit. ( Here )

"It is not a high profile race," Ohio State University's Election Law @ Moritz, said in its Jan. 14 post, (but) "it could create a high profile precedent…. (appearing) to have the potential of forcing the U.S. Supreme Court itself, or at least one of its Justices (indeed, its newest member, Justice Elena Kagan), to weigh in on how the precedent of Bush v. Gore applies to other elections besides the one in which it arose (which was, of course, the 2000 presidential election)."