Republicans, Challenging Early Voting, Rebuffed by Courts

Columbus, Ohio:

The run for the Rose Garden officially started Tuesday in Ohio, as registered Ohioans lined up at county polling centers to cast their early ballots along with many who will both register and vote on the same day. Today is the first presidential election since the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature changed state election law in 2005 to permit absentee voting by mail and in-person. Ohio's 88 counties are reporting record demand for absentee ballots, a barometer of the high level of interest in this year’s contest.

As of today Ohioans just entered a 35-day window in which they can register to vote early before November 4th, Election Day. From today to October 6th, eligible but unregistered Ohioans can both register to vote and request an absentee ballot, which won't be counted until Election Day. This overlap period, over who can vote and when, is at the heart of a controversy being fought in the courts between Democrats and Republicans.

The Ohio Republican Party asked a federal appeals court today to stop same-day registering and voting during a week-long period in the state. Opposed to the voting window created in 2005 when a Republican-controlled legislature made many changes to Ohio election law, the GOP is now asking the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to either stop same-day voting or require the Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's new, Democratic Secretary of State to separate those ballots so they can be verified before being counted on Election Day.

The argument advanced by Republicans is that the inability to verify the registration of new voters who cast absentee ballots between Tuesday and Oct. 6 will lead to voter fraud. The specter of voter fraud has been a long-time bogeyman for Republicans, despite the near absence of cases of people being convicted of voter fraud. To the political chagrin of Ohio Republicans, including the presidential campaign of John McCain, state and federal courts upheld same-day registering and voting, delivering a win to Brunner, whose interpretation of state law was upheld this time by the courts. Brunner, the first Democrat to serve in the office in 16 years, has committed a series of unforced errors on various election matters and found herself on the loosing end of several court decisions during her first two years in office.

Previously, Brunner instructed county election officials to segregate the ballots cast by those who register on the same day and verify the registration information before those ballots are counted on Nov. 4.

In Franklin County, the Board of Elections is forecasting 12,000 people could vote early in person every weekday and weekends until Election Day. Statewide turn out is expected to be about 80 percent, according to state projections. A record 200,000 Franklin County residents are expected to vote early.

Many political watchers say Ohio could again be the state that makes or breaks the hearts of either McCain or Obama. Both candidates are spending considerable time in the Buckeye State, knowing how import its 20 Electoral College votes are. President Bush won Ohio in 2004 by 118,601, a narrow margin that represents a difference of about nine votes per voting precinct.

In daily presidential tracking polls from survey groups like Rasmussen and Gallup, Obama is ahead of McCain by about six percentage points and has reached 50 percent. In Ohio, where Obama won only five of Ohio's 88 counties in early March, loosing to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton by about 10 percentage points. Although the race is a virtual dead heat, McCain seems to be slightly ahead. But as important as Ohio is -- no presidential candidate except for Richard Nixon in 1960 has won the White House without taking it -- the campaign thunder created by Obama has brought states Bush won in 2004 into reach. If Obama can capture states like New Mexico, Nevada or Colorado, then winning Ohio -- as savory as it might be -- might not be absolutely essential to victory.   

As more new voters sign up as Democrats than Republicans, Republicans see a significant structural deficit between their numbers and those who might vote for Obama as troubling. The Obama campaign has a ground game in Ohio, one it hopes will bring in enough young, minority and Hispanic votes to overcome any deficiencies it has with value voters and rural, working-class people who have yet to come to terms with him. Obamaites have waited for this day to arrive. They were ready with organized car pools from college campuses to early voting sites across the state.

Independent voter groups like Project Vote and the Advancement Project are also at play, seeking to increase poor and minority participation by helping groups like homeless shelters, halfway houses and soup kitchens make it to the polls on time. The Obama-Biden campaign is engaged in an proactive effort to educate supporters about how to register to vote and how and where to vote early.

The Supreme Court of Ohio and two federal judges upheld Brunner's ruling that allows new voters to register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day from Tuesday through Oct. 6. Republicans argued that Ohio law requires voters to be registered for 30 days before they cast an absentee ballot.

The Ohio GOP asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati today to either to stop same-day voting or require elections official to separate those ballots so the registrations can be verified. Voting officials had already been instructed to segregate those ballots and verify the registrations before counting them. A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court denied the request later in the day.

"Avoid the Line," five ways to register to vote and avoid waiting in line to vote, was launched recently by the Office of Ohio Secretary of State.

John Michael Spinelli is a former Ohio Statehouse government and political reporter and business columnist. He now serves as the OhioNews Bureau Chief for ePluribus Media Journal. Find ONB archives here.
Photo credits: (c) 2008 AnHarris, istockphoto

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