Provisional Ballots

In comments someone brought up the Enquirer's editoral on the "provisional ballot mess." The ruling of a Federal Court has been overturned by 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The relevant text of the Help America Vote Act is Title III Section 302(a) as follows:

(a) Provisional Voting Requirements.--If an individual declares that such individual is a registered voter in the jurisdiction in which the individual desires to vote and that the individual is eligible to vote in an election for Federal office, but the name of the individual does not appear on the official list of eligible voters for the polling place or an election official asserts that the individual is not eligible to vote, such individual shall be permitted to cast a provisional ballot as follows:

(1) An election official at the polling place shall notify the individual that the individual may cast a provisional ballot in that election.
(2) The individual shall be permitted to cast a provisional ballot at that polling place upon the execution of a written affirmation by the individual before an election official at the polling place stating that the individual is

(A) a registered voter in the jurisdiction in which the individual desires to vote; and
(B) eligible to vote in that election.

(3) An election official at the polling place shall transmit the ballot cast by the individual or the voter information contained in the written affirmation executed by the individual under paragraph (2) to an appropriate State or local election official for prompt verification under paragraph (4).
(4) If the appropriate State or local election official to whom the ballot or voter information is transmitted under paragraph(3) determines that the individual is eligible under State law to vote, the individual's provisional ballot shall be counted as a vote in that election in accordance with State law.
(5)(A) At the time that an individual casts a provisional ballot, the appropriate State or local election official shall give the individual written information that states that any individual who casts a provisional ballot will be able to ascertain under the system established under subparagraph (B)whether the vote was counted, and, if the vote was not counted, the reason that the vote was not counted.
(B) The appropriate State or local election official shall establish a free access system (such as a toll-free telephone number or an Internet website) that any individual who casts a provisional ballot may access to discover whether the vote of
that individual was counted, and, if the vote was not counted, the reason that the vote was not counted.

The crux of the issue with the law depends on how you define Jurisdiction. From my viewpoint I see the county as the definition of Jurisdiction for the State of Ohio. The county is where voter registration is controlled. It can't be voting precinct, which I don't think can quality as any type of jurisdiction. There is no foundation to claim any control or jurisdiction over a precinct, other than by the county. It could be the local jurisdiction (city, village, township), but that would actually be much more complicated than county. I could live in the city of Cincinnati, but fall among multiple state office boundaries. I would still have to have some variable type of ballot including all offices and issues for everyone in the city. The county would then have to have provisional ballots for precincts with the same races and issues.

The remedy is rather simple. All you need, which is what I think the Judge advised, is that each county create a standard county wide ballot. It would include all offices and issues, which are listed in every precinct in the county. That becomes the provisional ballot used for the person who thinks they should be registered in the county. As long as they are registered in the county, that ballot then counts. They do miss out on voting for many local races and issues, but they still can vote.

An additional solution that should happen before provisional ballots are brought up would a system (which partially exists, but needs to be improved) to help people find and then get to the correct precinct. We have a system now to help people fine the right voting location, but no way to get them there if they can't get there on their own. If they can't make it to the other location they will just not vote, making the provisional ballot a good second choice for that person, allowing their vote to count at least on some level. This is not rocket science. This would not cause confusion. This would not increase fraud. A person could commit as much fraud with Blackwell's restrictive provisional ballot as with this fair version. So claims of such are false and just cover for the real desire, suppressing the vote of poor and minority voters.

As of this morning I can't find a copy of the 6th circuit ruling online, I would guess it might hit tomorrow. I do not know their rationale for reversing the ruling. At this late date we are facing a mess because we have people following different guidelines and Blackwell lost his credibility and thus any real authority by his push to suppress the vote. We will have a mess.

Anti-Rock-the-Vote Republicans

Was this part of the reason why a local Republican threw a hissy fit and caused a local Rock-the-Vote to me moved from the Public Library? Did a local College Republican group forward propaganda like this article to her? That is the last issue that we don't know, why at the last minute did Deliaan A. Gettler worry about this event? Who put her up to it?

Bad Journalism and Lies from the GOP

Ok, a thief broken into local Bush Campaign HQ. That is horrid, terrible, and just sad. Ok, fine, got that out of the way.

What is disgusting about this Enquirer article and all other coverage on it is that no one mentioned if there was any of the typical political damage done to the place, like signs destroyed, graffiti on walls, etc. A window was broken and money was stolen. That sounds like your run of the mill robbery, yet a local Bush spokesperson is allowed to say:

"We don't know if it's politically motivated or not."

That is technically true. It is technically true that I don't know if I am actually the natural born son of my parents. Now, pictures of my dad when he was younger look exactly like me. You know, all of the pattern's fit, but I don't "know."

In this incident the pattern of a typical robbery fits perfectly. If this was politically motivated, the perpetrators would have left the money and destroyed all of the political paraphernalia, which based on the picture with the article, they did not do. The article lacks information telling us whether anything else was done inside the office. Anyone walking inside could have clear seen if something like "Bush is a Nazi" was spay painted on the wall. It does not surprise me that the Republicans would want to milk this for all it was worth, and they did so very smoothly in this article. They provide just enough room for fools to think it was caused by the Democrats, but without saying so. Jane Prendergast and her editors failed to either ask the question about other damage that would indicate if it was a political based action.

WCPO's article was almost as bad, they at least did not include the quote or anything like it in the article. The on-air story was far worse than the Enquirer, and showed bias. I could not believe the lead spoken by the anchor:

"Someone is apparently out to get the Hamilton County Bush/Cheney re-election campaign."

That is beyond bias and is frankly just a plain old lie. The worst lie comes from GOP spokesman Alex Triantafilou:

"Never-the-less it does fit a bit of a pattern across the country that we've seen with vandalism and ah disruptions at some of our offices and our operations."

Ah, Alex my man, if there is some kind of a pattern, where your stock of signs or stickers destroyed or stolen? Were anti-Bush slogans painted on anything? Did they do anything else to damage the progress of your campaign other than steal money like common criminals? There was nothing fitting a pattern other than a window being broken, which by the way was not the main window, but instead the one near the door so the criminals could get in and steal money. This had nothing to do with politics and when you say you don't know, you are in my opinion lying.

WKRC had little on the incident.

WLWT did the best by reporting by including other incidents that don't fit this case and mentioning Kerry's campaign having problems up in Toledo. They did have the most ignorant quote from Jenny French:

Jenny French stopped by the building for a few yard signs and said the fact that there was no indication of partisan motivation didn't interfere with her first thoughts when she saw the bits of broken glass, WLWT News 5's John London reported.

"I don't think there would be any other point but political," French said.

I am guess that even though all reports show that there were no WMD and no link between Iraq and 9/11, Jenny still thinks we will find WMD and that Saddam was behind 9/11. That kind of ignorance is not as rare as it should be.

Blackwell Grandstanding

Ken Blackwell is now grandstanding against a Federal Judge. Defying a judge is surely a great way to win support for a legal case.

Blackwell and GOP's attempts to suppress the vote is not a new occurrence, but in today's age of inclusion it shows a disdain for the poor and a disdain for the less educated that perplexes me. Why do people feel there should be an intelligence test for voting? Why make it more difficult to vote? If we are going to exclude people because of being ignorant on the issues or being askew of reality, then most of those supporting Bush would be disqualified.

Steve Fritsch's Cheap Tricks

Just so you know that when Steve Fritsch wrote a column attacking Todd Portune he was "not" trying to make a back hand claim that Todd Portune is faking his injury to gain political votes. Steve is "not" using double talk:

Again, I'm not claiming that Portune still doesn't need his wheelchair. I don't know if he really needs it or not. But coming from a man who is as deceitful as Portune is, a man who personifies "politician" in its negative connation, it wouldn't surprise me if he was using it for political gain.

Steve surely is "not" bring up the issue of Portune faking his need for a wheelchair by saying it is possible but he doesn't know.

It is possible, I don't know mind you, that since Tom Brinkman voted against ratifying the 14th Amendment he is a theocratic racist. It is possible with his prior stances on religious issues. Hey, I don't know either way. I really don't have any insight into man at all. I just have to point out that it is possible and would in no way surprise me.

Stick with Kerry

That is exactly what I have been waiting for from Maggie Downs. I would like this type of politically based, yet fun to read column that can balance out Bronson's right wing tripe.

Her sticker counts are similar to what I see, which even though she stuck to more "liberal" parts of town (stayed out of StepfordWest Chester) shows me that either Kerry folks locally are more energized or the Bush campaign is taking this area for granted. I will be interested to see how Bush's numbers inside Hamilton County compare with 2000. I would bet Kerry far exceeds the votes Gore received.

Open Thread

Chime in on stuff.

CT is in Covington tonight, come on out!