Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Local Blogger's Registration Messed Up

Ethan Hahn of Queen City Soapbox reports he was not listed as being registered. What makes no sense is that he has lived in the same place for two years and voted in each election during that time. His wife who voted with him at the time was listed and was able to vote, but he was not. How could this have screwed up? This kind of thing should not happen. If he had moved and it had mess up that is one thing, but this sound like a serious error at the BOE. Ethan will have more later.

He was allowed to cast a provisional ballot, which is odd. I guess showing he lived in the precinct was what he had to do be allowed to cast the provisional ballot. His case should be reviewed and I hope the BOE can give him some answers.

UPDATE: Ethan has gotten some answers and it appears a new registrant's name was similar to his and they treated that new registration as a change to his, which was incorrect. His vote should count and they have fixed the problem. What this points out however is that the volume of new registration really caused some problems at the BOE. This is not the only case of this type of thing. I think some of the money the Federal government gave to Ohio for voting machines might best be spent on human beings auditing the registration roles for oddities like Ethan's case before today.

UPDATE #2: Ethan has a full recap of the resolution.

Vote Cast - Power Out

I had no problems casting my vote and as expected there were no challengers at my precinct. I ran into problems at home when my power was out. It hit a large portion of Mt. Washington. I am therefore back enjoying a Mocha at Panera.

The oddest thing at the polls, and this may just be normal practice because it happened for someone else at another poll, is that they have a second checklist they workers where checking off. When I asked what that was for, one of the ladies said they have to post it at 11:00 AM. I have no idea why and it seems like a secondary log of the polls which seems good, but it just struck me as odd. Also, the registers are printed in a new format, easier to use.

I'm Off to Vote

I have my camera in hand.

If you have own voting stories or reports, please share them here.

Targeted Challenges

According the article on the appeals court ruling: the GOP states they will have "3,500 challengers" in Ohio. Well, that says at least that every precinct will not be gummed up. What it also says that the GOP is only sending challengers to certain polling locations. Hamilton County alone has 1,025 precincts. The GOP is going after the Democratic vote, and will ignore anything at precincts where they dominate. Prior reports indicate they will be targeting minority polling locations. We are going to have problems and this may get out of hand.

I hope the media keeps a tally of how many voters they challenge and how many are successful. Oh, wait, they will not be allowed in the polls to watch the GOP. The Dems will have to do it. Damn it, I am getting a bit pissed about this. Up until now I still held out hope that the GOP was just flexing its muscle, trying to act tough in light of a bad situation. I know think they are truly out to keep people from voting at the polls. We are headed for something bad.

More from Kos and Make Ohio Blue, including the first report of challengers.

Please are going to be confused when reading their Newspapers like this.

It is going to be a long day.

Back to a Mess

Well the 6th Circuit lived up to its reputation and has reversed both the Dlott and Adams decisions and will allow challengers into the polls. We now will have a mess at the polls. It might have been nice of the judges to ah, do this yesterday maybe? I mean now will have poll workers who at this point don't even know that the challengers are allowed in, and the polls are now open.

It is now going to be nasty at the polls. Tension has mounted and people will not have heard about this ruling before some idiot tries to challenge someone.

Please remember that when you go vote you do not have to talk to anyone but the poll worker. Bring some ID and check out these two sets of questions you might be asked: DDN and Enquirer.

I wonder what Blackwell is saying about this.

I wonder if exit poll workers will get in too.

Ohio Voter Suppression has more.
Go Vote!

If you are reading this and you have not yet voted, then what are you waiting for?

Happy Election Day!

Polls Open at 6:30 AM in Ohio and Close as 7:30 PM.

Vote early and often.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Happy Ken Blackwell

After the rulings today from two Federal Judges (Dlott and Adams), Ken Blackwell must be pleased. I even think Jim Petro, Ohio AG, is pleased. He is so pleased that he is putting off appealing the state law allowing poll challengers until after the election.

I think this issue will not be much of a post election talking point for the GOP, at least not if Tacitus is right when "Von" reported that Judge Adams was appointed by Bush. Dlott is the much reviled Democrat appointee that every local Republican seems to hate.

I think Blackwell saw the challengers as losing issue, but the Bush campaign and the state wide GOP wants to claw at any issue they can. Blackwell wants to be governor and he can't have presided over the messiest Ohio election in history and win in a harsh GOP primary.

I think the County BOEs are going to be the real mess now.

The issue that is going to be at issue in Ohio is the exit polling. Will it be worth anything? I mean I know it never is and this year all polling is whacked, but with Blackwell's order to keep the media out of the precincts, will they be able to get as accurate results?