The new Ohio Secretary of State, Jon Husted, on his first day, has reversed an order by outgoing SoS to check on ballots cast minorly incorrectly. In a polling location serving 2 precincts, voters were given provisional ballots if they approached the wrong precinct instead of being directed to the other precinct. The difference between precincts is tables on opposite sides of a room with their numbers scrawled in Sharpie on a piece of paper identifying them.
I have approached the wrong table & have been directed to the other a number of times. It seems natural to tell someone to try again rather than introduce a whole new process of digging out a provisional ballot.
The race in question is for a countywide position, Juvenile Court Judge. Precincts don't really matter much. The all or nothing approach to validating ballots seems kind of heavy handed in localized vote counting.
Voting isn't a game. It is a right & responsibility & we should be working together to count every vote as best we can. The people denying these 800+ ballots are all Republican. The people wanting them checked & counted are all Democrat. It seems odd that the difference of opinion would be along party lines. In this case the Democrats seem to be acting more in line with the spirit of the process. The Republicans are defying the will of the individuals on this one.
I have to admit, I didn't vote on this race. Tracie Hunter is kinda cute in a stick bug sorta way but I have not been impressed by her work on CitiCable & I knew nothing about the Republican running for the office. On top of that, I have no kids & kinda believe everybody under 30 should be incarcerated or at least manacled, anyway.
The poll workers who screwed up & caused this mess should be fined & fired. In the long run I hope Husted does a better job of training poll workers so this doesn't happen again but, from this first action, I don't see that coming.
Fishwrap story here.
Cincinnati Blog post here.
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