Nearly 600,000 Subject to Possible Caging in Ohio
Submitted by Ice on September 6, 2008 - 9:54pm.
Okay Clarkies......we need some brain storming on this. I'm sure OHIO is NOT the only state this is happening in. Thoughts?
How many voter-registration mass mailers are "returned to sender" in the run-up to Election Day may determine how many Ohio residents are eligible to vote.
Ohio election officials are sending out a mass mailer stamped “do not forward” to all registered voters today (Sept. 5) with an absentee ballot application and other important notices for Nov. 4.
What’s important here is not so much what’s going out as what’s being returned to sender.
Unbeknownst to the would-be recipients, the same mailer — just 60 days before the election — has the potential to determine their eligibility to vote, challenged not by election officials but by partisan opposition.
A similar mailer in March netted nondeliverable mail from almost 600,000 registered voters in just five Ohio counties who could now have their ballots thrown out for voting under the wrong address.
The National Voter Registration Act prohibits any state from purging names from the voting rolls within 90 days of an election.
The law doesn’t, however, preclude mass partisan challenges on or shortly before Election Day — known as voter caging — based on the same returned envelopes from state-sponsored mailers like the ones in Ohio and others going out across the country.
In 2004, the year the national election hinged on results from Ohio, the Ohio Republican Party challenged 35,000 voters based on returned mail from the GOP's own friendly reminder notices. From 2004 to 2006, Republicans challenged 77,000 voters this way nationwide. A consent decree issued in 1982 and amended in 1987 enjoins the GOP from instituting “ballot security programs” that focus on minority voters.
No evidence so far suggests Republicans — vote caging is essentially a GOP sport — have mounted a caging campaign this year. Yet, in July, Franklin County Election Director and County GOP Chairman Doug Preisse told reporters he didn’t rule out challenges before November, particularly because of increased home foreclosures, which would make failures to change address on voter registration records more common.
A challenged voter will likely cast a provisional ballot, which often requires voters to return to election divisions to prove their identity and address. Nearly a third of all 1.6 million provisional ballots cast in 2004 were thrown out.
Voting-rights groups don’t oppose voter-roll housekeeping, but they cite the federal law as evidence that executing it so close to the actual election isn’t fair.
The fraud that voter caging purportedly roots out is relatively rare, although vote solicitors working for the liberal group ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, in 2004 and again this year were accused of submitting false registration forms. Ohio is one of five states where ACORN employees have been investigated and, in some instances, jailed over submitting false voter registration forms.
Unrelated to ACORN, the Web site GOP.com cites two voting-fraud court cases in Ohio, both focused on individuals casting a second ballot intentionally.
On Nov. 1, 2004, voter-rights groups reacted and challenged the partisan caging in Ohio all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in just two days but lost in a final-hour appeal. This year, they want to be as proactive as possible, said Donita Judge, Ohio staff attorney for the nonprofit Advancement Project.
“A single returned piece of mail is not a reliable basis for challenging the right to vote,” Judge said. “Mail may be returned for many reasons, including errors in the database from which the mailing is derived, errors in the mailing labels, failure to include an apartment number or poor matching criteria.”
Since 2005, Ohio state law has required a non-forwarded mailer 60 days before each federal election. The suspicious part about the law, Judge said, is that it’s set to expire after the November election.
But it’s not all about throwing votes out. Another aspect of Ohio’s reformed election law is that it opens a window between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6 when voters can register one minute and cast a ballot the next.
That’s generally seen as a benefit for Democrats this year since the new registrations refer mainly to 400,000 or so resident college students in Ohio. Obama holds a 2-to-1 lead over McCain among 18- to 34-year-olds, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last month.
Following a statewide mailer similar to the one going out today, before the Ohio primary in March, the Advancement Project obtained the lists of returned notices through simple public records requests. The organization requested records from five urban Ohio counties — Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas and Summit.
The total came to 600,000 names out of 3 million voters, amounting to 19.7 percent of all registered voters.
Sally Krisel, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said the high percentage was misleading because the mailer in her county included those on the inactive voter roll. Considering only active registered voters, the county received about 5 percent returned in March, she said.
Inactive voters, tagged for possible removal, are given two years to cast a ballot before they can be removed from the rolls. None of the returned, 60-day notices are used for that purpose, Krisel said.
“We have not purged anybody this year,” she said. “In big counties, we’re often carrying a lot of inactive voters.”
In Franklin County, the March mailer went to all registered voters as well. Out of 780,000, more than 150,000 notices were returned. Those voters are now excluded from receiving another notice this week, said Ben Piscitelli, spokesman for the Franklin County Board of Elections. The only public records request for the list so far came from the Obama campaign, Piscitelli said.
Meanwhile, the sweeping Ohio election law loosens the rules around challenging voters. It also strips much of the ability of voters to know they are being challenged and defend their right to vote before an election judge.
SOURCE: http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/662
because I was just about to type to Ice... what the heck is Brunner doing?? She is one of the good guys and yet for this kind of scam to take hold.... someone had to be asleep at the wheel. These aren't new or unique GOP tactics-- they're tried and true. And Jennifer Brunner should have been way ahead of the curve on prevention.
Glad to see this article showing she's put the brakes on it ... but with these guys-- I can tell you, in a few more weeks they'll have found something else to disenfranchise voters. We went through it here in California with that ballot initiative. It's always something...
To always be fighting for our rights!
When we take a break in Nov. we MUST remember that the people trying to screw us are always working on new ways to SCREW us! We must be diligent!
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
Nearly a quarter of Wisconsin voters fail ID checks
Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/27/2008 12:04:28 PM CDT
MADISON — Nearly a quarter of Wisconsin residents who have registered to vote since Aug. 6 have failed identification checks.
That's according to state Government Accountability Board staff members.
Federal law requires each state to build a statewide voter registration list and cross-reference names with other state databases to verify identify and addresses. Wisconsin's software went online Aug. 6.
Twenty-two percent of registrants since then have been red-flagged. Their information doesn't match information for them kept by the state Department of Transportation or their Social Security data.
SOURCE: http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_10316063
Wisconsin can register the same day they vote, so I don't see this as a problem unless they have the proper ID. Funny that I found this in the MN news.....hmmm.......
on Air America. A caller was recommending everyone register republican now--(you can vote how you like) then you won't get 'caged' prior to the election, you have less wait/lines at the polls, you won't get anyone trying to mess with your vote or right to cast it on the day of the election, no official telling you that you need to vote to vote Provisional Ballot (which get tossed out) or that you're at the wrong polling place (both of which happened to me last election) and -- best reason of all --your vote will be COUNTED!
Now that is out-Roving Rove! :)
You can't "register" as a member of a particular party. Voters in Illinois are considered to be a member of a party based on how they voted in the most recent primary.
Proud to be an American.
The amended challenge law no longer requires the county boards to give all Ohio voters notice that their right to vote is being challenged or to permit a hearing for them to defend their right. Rather, the new election law permits the boards to review their own records and make a determination on the validity of the challenge.
"A single returned piece of mail is not a reliable basis for challenging the right to vote," said Donita Judge, Ohio staff attorney, Advancement Project. "Mail may be returned for many reasons, including errors in the database from which the mailing is derived, errors in the mailing labels, failure to include an apartment number or poor matching criteria."
Advancement Project and Project Vote encourage the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner to issue a directive prohibiting Ohio electors from challenging Ohio voters whose names appear on any returned mailings and/or any past, current or future caging list. Ohio has fair regulations in place to deal with returned election notices and address updates. Voter caging lists should not be permitted to effectively cancel these regulations. This is the best remedy to ensure that all Ohio voters are treated in a uniform manner during the November 2008 election because it permits the county boards to send out information to Ohio voters and at the same time ensures that all voters are permitted to vote without the threat of being placed on a list that is subject to challenge for no other reason than a returned mailing.
"Partisan, challengers who have obtained a list of returned letters shouldn't be allowed to strip Ohio voters of their right to update their addresses" said Teresa James, attorney with Project Vote. "The lack of notice to challenged voters under Ohio’s 2006 challenge law allows this interference to take place quietly and behind closed doors. This violates the principles our nation was founded on. It is imperative that Secretary Brunner establish guidelines so that partisan challengers will not be permitted to lodge unfounded challenges that clog the election process, burden poll workers and disenfranchise eligible voters."
Ohio's current law is internally inconsistent. Ohio law permits voters who move from one precinct to another to change their address from 28 days prior to the election, up to and including Election Day. Yet, if a voter is challenged and removed from the rolls, without notice within that time, this cancels the voter’s statutory right to update an address because there is no longer a registration on file. It also violates Ohio law and equal protection of the laws because this voter is not provided the same meaningful opportunity to update a valid registration up to and including Election Day as other Ohio voters.
The new election law also unfairly impacts black and Latino Americans and other voters of color. Advancement Project anticipates that large numbers of voters of color will be included on the county generated caging lists because census data indicates that they move more frequently than white Americans. Based on historical voter caging practices, Project Vote has also found that voter caging disproportionately shuts out voters of color. Because college students change residences frequently, it is anticipated that large numbers of young voters will be included on the caging lists as well.
This law was effective beginning 2006 and covers all primary, general, and special elections from 2006 through the November 2008 General Election. Advancement Project and Project Vote find it extremely interesting, that this law "sunsets" effective January 1, 2009.
"Voter suppression and intimidation is driven by a desire to maintain the status quo," concluded Judge. "These acts are carried out in an effort to deprive certain Americans, especially those most marginalized, of a voice in our democracy. Election Day is the great equalizer – it is the one day where if all was right in our democracy, it would not matter if a person is rich, poor, black, white, educated or not, we all would have the same amount of power."
There is a lawsuit pending now that is challenging the 2006 "law". I'll see if I can find the link.
Somebody in Ohio is ON IT. I'm pretty sure Cliff Arnebeck, Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis are in the midst of it.
You can check Bradblog and the DU Election Protection forum for starters. I know I read the lawsuit has been filed.
www.mccainsfreeride.com
at FreePress.org
Ten ways the McCain/Palin GOP is now stealing the Ohio vote
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
September 9, 2008
To help guarantee an election that truly reflects the will of the voters, Freepress.org will convene a conference on election protection procedures web-cast from Columbus this September 26-8. It will reinforce the positive steps Brunner has taken, and will help train poll workers and judges to safeguard the vote in Ohio and around the nation.
But much of the electoral apparatus remains beyond public control. Serious questions remain about how reliable the final vote count will be, and how much of it the Republican party will cage, confuse and steal in its crusade to put John McCain and Sarah Palin into the White House.
Here are some of the key factors that still endanger the vote in Ohio and around the nation:
read the list at the above link...
I encourage all to sign up for the conference!
http://freepress.org/econf/
As Goes Ohio . . . Election Protection Conference
September 26-28, 2008
Conference Center, Center for Workforce Development
315 Cleveland Avenue, 4th floor
Columbus State Community College
Columbus, Ohio
http://freepress.org/econf/
www.mccainsfreeride.com
I believe this trumps the voter caging.
Federal law and the U.S. Constitution to trump Ohio Election Law.
http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2488
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
http://barackobama.com