The Battle Over Same Day Registration
Legislation passed by the Republican controlled state legislature in 2006 provides a five-day overlap between the first day to request an absentee ballot (Sept. 30) and the last day to register to vote (Oct. 6). Recognizing this, Brunner issued a directive to use this window of time to allow Ohio residents to register, request a ballot and cast that ballot all on the same day; a convenience that would "enable many young, minority, and low-income Ohioans to vote who otherwise would be shut out from voting," said Project Vote executive director, Michael Slater. The law was unsuccessfully challenged by Republican voters when a U.S. district judge in Cleveland and the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of Same Day Registration.
The decision came after lawyers for Project Vote and other voting rights organizations coordinated efforts in a legal battle to protect Ohio's five-day SDR period from the Republican lawsuits. Within hours of the court decision to uphold SDR, a case filed by the Ohio Republican Party to block SDR was declined by a U.S. district judge in Columbus, deferring to the decision by the Ohio Supreme Court earlier in the day.
Ohio is one of more than 30 states that allow voters to cast an early ballot. Eight states allow voters to register and vote on Election Day while North Carolina allows the practice during early voting.
Turnout has been 10 percent to 17 percent higher than the national average in the six states that had same-day registration and voting before 2006, as well as in North Dakota (which doesn't require voter registration), according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Surprisingly, early voting turnout was reportedly low with just 4,000 voters registering and casting ballots in the five-day period, according to the Associated Press.
Although Ohio courts sided with voters by permitting SDR, which ended on Oct. 6, the battle continues today.
Hamilton County special prosecutor Michael O'Neil is conducting a "troubling" grand jury investigation into hundreds of county voters who lawfully registered and cast absentee ballots during the five-day window of SDR.
"The renewed litigation prompted Gov. Ted Strickland (D) to say yesterday that Republicans 'have tried to instill fear in Ohio voters,'" the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
"We condemn these attacks which we find despicable. Ohioans deserve better than what they are getting from John McCain and the Republican Party," Strickland said at a press conference Monday, according to the Associated Press. "U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown added, "It's clear Republicans are using a systematic and coordinated effort of frivolous lawsuits and official government positions to scare Ohioans and suppress voters."
On Oct. 22, a coalition of voting and civil rights groups, including Project Vote, sent a letter to O'Neil, urging him to suspend the investigation that "would threaten the federally protected rights of Hamilton County voters under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the United States Constitution," according to a Project Vote news release.
Dismissing the investigation as reminiscent of a voter suppression and intimidation tactic last seen in the Deep South during the 1960s, Project Vote election counsel, Teresa James said "there has been no documented allegation that fraud occurred, let alone any credible evidence. This is an obvious overreaching of the authority of the prosecutor's office, and a gross and egregious abuse of power."
In Other News:
Signature-Gatherer Arrested In Voter Fraud: Calif. GOP Contractor Accused In Registration Scam Charged With Falsely Registering Own Address "" CBS News
The owner of a signature-gathering firm has been arrested on suspicion of voter registration fraud, authorities said Sunday.
NEW INFO: Voter ID Verification Lawsuit Dismissed "" Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A judge has thrown out Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's lawsuit to force election officials to confirm thousands of voters' identities before Election Day.
'No match, no vote' law puts state, counties at odds "" Palm Beach Post
TALLAHASSEE --Breaking with the state's top elections official, an attorney for the state supervisors of elections issued a memo Wednesday telling them to ignore Secretary of State Kurt Browning's instructions about how to handle new voters whose registration has not been verified.
EDITORIAL: Sorry, I Can't Find Your Name "" New York Times
Before Mississippi's March presidential primary, one county election official improperly removed more than 8,000 voters from the eligible-voter rolls, including a Republican Congressional candidate. Fortunately, the secretary of state's office learned of the purge in time and restored the voters.
