Ohio Democrats: "Minorities are Incompetent Bums!"

A court has ruled in an Ohio case, saying that provisional ballots - the ones that many counties will issue if they're not sure about a person's qualifications to vote - must be cast at the polling place in the person's home precinct.

A federal appeals court ruled Saturday that provisional ballots Ohio voters cast outside their own precincts should not be counted, throwing out a lower-court decision that said such ballots are valid as long as they are cast in the correct county.

The ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supports an order issued by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. Democrats contend the Republican official's rules are too restrictive and allege they are intended to suppress the vote.

Ohio Democrats on Saturday night decided not to file an appeal in the case, one of the first major tests of how such ballots will be handled in a close election. Polls show that the race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry in the key swing state is too close to call.

This, of course, will help fraud-proof the election ever-so-slightly; we should have fewer cases of people claiming "honest! I just moved here on the first! Really!" in precinct after precinct. It should make it incrementally harder for fraudulent registrations to be exercised on election day.

The Democrats? Oh, they're mad:

The Ohio Democratic Party and a coalition of labor and voter rights groups had argued that Blackwell's order discriminated against the poor and minorities, who tend to move more frequently

Maybe - I know I moved a lot when I was poor - but wasn't that what the immense voter registration drive was supposed to address?

Most state require provisional ballots to be cast in the voter's home precinct.

Posted by Mitch at October 24, 2004 12:36 PM | TrackBack