Reply #3: OH: Republicans Now Oppose Easy Absentee Balloting

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Now Blackwell and the Republicans oppose absentee ballots as part of the state wide initiative. What’s up with that. Are they afraid there might be a real audit trail, you know with all that PAPER! This special election is a chance for Ohio to fire Blackwell and set it up to fire the rest of the Republican reign of terror.

Support shifts on absentee vote reform

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/NEWS09/510090313


By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS - A proposed constitutional amendment that would open early voting by absentee ballot to any registered voter for any reason was originally the exception to the rule.


Even as the largely Republican opposition lined up to oppose other election-reform proposals on redistricting, campaign contributions, and election administration on the Nov. 8 ballot, it was divided on letting more voters use absentee ballots.

The House GOP inserted something similar into an election-reform bill the chamber overwhelmingly sent to the Senate in May. Republican heavyweights, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Attorney General Jim Petro, broke from the GOP pack to support this issue.

But now, early voting and no-fault absentee ballots, some form of which is in place in nearly half the states in the country, suddenly are not as popular. The provision added to the House bill is in danger in the Senate. And Mr. Blackwell has changed his mind.

"It's easier to simply urge people to vote against all of them," said Herb Asher, Ohio State University political science professor and spokesman for Reform Ohio Now, the largely Democrat coalition pushing all four amendments.

Voters will be asked to amend the Ohio Constitution to allow any voter to cast an absentee ballot by mail or in person at the county board of elections up to 35 days before the election. No longer would a voter have to attest he can't make it to the polls on Election Day due to age, illness, infirmity, military duty, or out-of-town commitments.

"I'm really puzzled as to why they would oppose it at this point and time," said Rep. Edna Brown (D., Toledo), who twice introduced non-fault absentee ballot bills before the idea was amended into House Bill 3 earlier this year.

"Why all of a sudden are some people who were supporting it now saying they oppose it?" she asked. "Why are they having a change of heart?"