(Ohio) Voters rejected because of paper weight

[Alpharetta]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18715

Voters rejected because of paper weight

Disenfranchised by old technology


By Nick Farrell: Tuesday 28 September 2004, 09:48

A GINGER group claims that the state of Ohio has rejected thousands of voter registrations because they are on the wrong paper. Citizens for Legitimate Government, here, said that an old law requires all voter registration forms to be on cards that are 80lb stock paper. This is a hangover from the days when such forms had to be kept for a long time.
However, according to the group, that requirement has long since stopped being important since all applications are immediately scanned and stored in a computer database and are no longer physically stored.

However, for some reason, just before the voter registration date is about to end, Ken Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of State ordered local election boards to send out 'correct forms' and tell voters to re-apply.

(a little more at LINK:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18715)

[Alpharetta]

1. and yes, Ken Blackwell, the Ohio Sec of State, is Republican

http://www.kenblackwell.com/news.asp?formmode=release&id=41

[Zorra]

33. Blackwell needs to be criminally investigated on voting fraud big time.

If enough Dems get elected in November so that the Justice Dept. will once again prosecute criminals regardless of their party affiliation, Blackwell may be going to the big house.

[JuniorPlankton]

2. Nothing is to low for the repukes

Trying to do another "harris"

[rvgwinn]

3. elections

I gotta BAD feeling about the elections. Its gonna be WHATEVER IT TAKES!

[arwalden]

4. Republicans = Lying Sacks Of Pigshit

Someone in Ohio is going to come unglued... it's not going to be pretty.

[liberalmuse]

5. Write him and let him know what you think!

I gave him a piece of my mind yesterday, but tried to remain civil, which was difficult:

J. Kenneth Blackwell-R
180 E. Broad St., 15th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
614-466-3910
E-Mail: [e-mail]

[Eloriel]

17. Hard but important to remain civil

Good point you bring up. t's possible to express outrage and anger without being uncivil. Uncivil correspondence is far too easy to shrug off and ignore.

[annabanana]

21. my email to Ohio...

Whether or not you hit the 6 o'clock news with your attempt to disenfranchise all those voters, rest assured that the information IS getting national attention.

[Kolesar]

18. I've been calling but cannot get to the "elections department"

Elections is number 3 on your keypad. It rings a dozen times then goes dead.

I have left a message on the supervisor of business services' machine. I told them "people have died to get us the right to vote" among other polite but strident things.

[Robb]

6. Great.

Another move that'll hit the rural/poor counties that're more likely to be doing their own printing as a money-saver. And poor folks tend toward ag/labor Dems. :eyes:

I can't imagine Blackwell thought the story wouldn't get legs, but who knows. I turned on the TV last night and all I got was Lacy Peterson.

[Alpharetta]

7. Don't jump the gun on this

The only other GoogleNews hits for this story is DailyKos.

Or maybe I'm naive to believe this story would be picked up by larger newspapers if legit.

[liberalnurse]

9. No, it was in the Dayton Daily News....

Written by Jim Bebbington and Laura Bischoff on September 24th.

Contact the author, Jim Bebbington....937-225-2262

Here is the link....

Look on the right column/boxed....Statehouse Bureau. The Blackwell article is there!

http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/index.html

[Polemonium]

29. Contact the Feds - Federal voting assistance office for a start

Then your democratic reps. Keep making a stink. The only way we reduce unfairness in this election will be to keep on everyone we can find to listen.

[liberalnurse]

8. Call the local TV New Channels....

They are in a bit of disbelief.....Lets convince them to get off their asses and research the story!


Dayton:


Channel 7 Whio.............937-253-6397

email:

[e-mail]




Channel 2 WDTN.............937-293-2101


Contact them and back me up. I sent them the article from The Dayton Daily News....

[sam sarrha]

10. you need to tell us where an artilcle is located whin the format and

VOLUME is this large...

lots and LOTS of information... but i cant find your article..!!!

[liberalnurse]

13. I just posted it.....

[Walt Starr]

11. somebody proved yesterday that Blackwell's move was illegal

under federal law, IIRC.

[Squeech]

12. Maybe they should reject the governor too

because he's obviously a lightweight.

[spotbird]

14. Dayton Daily News has a new story today.

Suit alleges voter impediments
Democrats say Blackwell trying to limit ballot access

COLUMBUS | Ohio Democrats took Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to court Monday, charging that he is trying to limit where some voters may cast their ballots in violation of the federal Help America Vote Act

In a related development, LoParo appeared to defuse a second voting controversy, this one involving Montgomery County and a requirement in state law that voter registration cards be printed on thick, 80-pound stock paper.

Secretary of state employees are not the "paper weight police," LoParo said. He said employees would not go to county boards of election to check the paper weight of voter registration forms arriving in the mail. At a news conference here to announce the lawsuit, state Democratic Party Chairman Denny White said Ohio has a "secretary of state now that's purposely trying to take your right away from your vote and my vote of being counted.

*more*

On edit this line kills me:

LoParo said the paper weight requirement is in place because registration forms are made to be mailed like postcards and must be thick enough to withstand Postal Service sorters.

Someone please let him know that there was no problem at the post office if the registration forms made it to the local boards!







*more*

[wildeyed]

16. Thanks spotbird

I needed to know that. I hope they sue him, ruin his two-bit career and then sue him some more. We need to show partisan local officials that this bs won't be tolerated anymore. Voter disenfranchisement is not ok. There are consequences to these actions.

Now we need the national press to pick up on the story.

The Ohio gops must be really scared of a dem landslide on Nov 2 if they are trying tricks this low already.

[LisaL]

19. Of course they are scared.

Democrats are registering way more new voters. Or maybe Democrats only think they are registering way more new voters, if they didn't use 80 Lb paper. Simply disgusting, there is no other way to put this. Call this Blackwell guy up and ask him why he is doing it?

[sam sarrha]

15. someone needs to find out if the paper was Demographically delivered on a

Partisan basis.. this can be done by simply checking the clusters of disenfranchised voters...

THIS SHOULDN'T END TILL IT IS INVESTIGATED !!!!!!!!!!!!

:wtf:

I e-mailed him and told him that he had entered the 'Fascist Hall of Shame'.

[annabanana]

20. dupe, sorry

[sam sarrha]

22. so is this because of a Liberal News Paper put voter registration

forms in their paper..!!!!!!!!! And the Fascists didnt like it????

[JackDragna]

23. It's getting dangerously close to the time..

..when lawsuits and letters to the editor aren't going to be enough in this country. Ohioans, keep us posted on what happens there.

[DeepModem Mom]

30. Pessimistically, they do own the highest court in the land, and our press

....Yep, we are dangerously close to being able to do nothing about something like this.

[Rose Siding]

24. Other threads show this is illegal:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x870095#870228

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x905337

[JPZenger]

26. Sec. of State Also Trying to Stop Provisional Ballots

Here's an article from the Ohio League of Women's Voters. Scroll down to the middle of the article. The Federal election law gives voters the right to a "provisional ballot" if there are questions about whether they are properly registered. This allows time after the election to decide whether a mistake was made. The same Secretary of State is trying to interfere with this right:

http://www.lwvohio.org/advocacy/press/sos.html

There also are many articles on the net about how this Secretary of State was pressuring every county to buy Diebold voting machines.

[goclark]

25. Sent a blasting email to all of them =txs

[JPZenger]

27. Better to Contact the Media vs. Sec. of State

I believe it would be much more effective to contact the media throughout Ohio about this story than to send angry emails to the Secretary of State.

[goclark]

31. Received a nice response

from someone on the list.

They assured me that they would not disqualify any ballots because of weight.
I sent them a thank you.

[henslee]

34. from whom in particular? Summit Cty?

[JPZenger]

28. Good Set of Links on Attempted Theft of the Election

http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/electoral-integrity.htm

[Manix]

32. ...the ghost of Florida 2000 returns!.....rethugs are shameless.

[PunkinPi]

35. ACT (America Coming Together) has a PETITION

(see link below)


http://static.act04.org/act/paperstock.htm

[Just Me]

36. He has just declared WAR upon the American people!!!!!

All I can say is,...SCREW HIM!!!!

THE PEOPLE WILL RULE AGAINST YOUR ANTI-DEMOCRACY BATTLES!!!

The time has arrived to BURY these despots that destroy democracy.