Ohio voter issues

Two lawsuits -- one having just been decided by the 6th. Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing early in-person voting over the final three days before the election, while the other, still pending in the 6th. Circuit, seeks to determine whether certain provisional votes will be counted – will have much to say about the state's procedures for Election Day 2012, Cincinnati.com writes this morning, and "a month before the Nov. 6 presidential election, the rules that will govern how Ohioans cast their ballots remain uncertain."


Of the two suits, Cincinnati.com says, the one concerning provisional ballots – cast when there are questions over a voter's registration – arguably has the greater potential for causing last-minute scrambling among election officials and confusion at the polls.

"Late last August," the article continues, "U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley ordered Ohio to count provisional ballots cast at the right location but in the wrong precinct, a crucial ruling that could prevent thousands of votes from being disqualified as they have been in past elections. That decision changed the rules established by an earlier Ohio Supreme Court ruling under which all provisional votes cast in the wrong precinct must be tossed out, even in cases of poll worker error… Secretary of State John Husted appealed Marbley's decision to the 6th Circuit, leaving both sides waiting for a decision. When it will come is a matter of conjecture."