Monday, September 27, 2004
Ohio Secretary of state doesn't want too many people voting
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has decided to start enforcing an old law requiring voter registration forms to be printed on 80-pound paper. 80-pound paper is postcard stock. The law dates from a time where the cards were physically kept on file for decades, but it is still on the books (today, the registration is entered into a computer).
The Cleveland Plain Dealer printed a voter registration form (on newsprint) - and Blackwell has given the Cuyahoga board special permission to accept those, but other counties are apparently - get this - mailing the person who tried to register on too light paper. Yes, instead of entering the information into a computer, they're using the information to mail the the attempted register, informing them their registration was unacceptable.
Federal law requires all states accept the National Mail Voter Registration form which is to be downloaded and printed out on a computer printer. Nasty feds messin' with Blackwell's low voter turnout project.
Voters in Ohio have been registering like crazy, most of them in heavily Democratic precincts. Those that "got it wrong" the first time have until October 4 to get it right.
Oh yeah. Blackwell is a Republican.
(Via Thistime's diary at Daily Kos.)
// posted by Erik @ 9/27/2004 11:09:00 AM
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