Ohio Voter-registration rules tossed

[nascar55]

From the Columbus Dispatch "CLEVELAND — A federal judge threw out new state rules governing voter-registration drives yesterday, saying they appear to violate the First Amendment and hurt efforts to sign up new voters."


http://www.dispatch.com/news/news.php?story=dispatch/2006/09/02/20060902-A1-02.html

[geiger]

1. Does anyone know if the judge issued a deadline to change the forms

it seems to me that now, too, noone will know which "rules" to follow.

i never thought that requiring an i.d. to vote was particularly onerous. i did object to the litigious language, as this judge did. a person is only registered to vote in one place; they can't register twice, and they are only on one list. if a recent move has occurred, a note can be made, it seems to me, to change the information in time for the next election.

All this back and forth, back and forth, just cheapens the process. the only good thing I see coming out of it is that i bet Blackwell is spending a lot more time on this than he ever anticipated. the sneaky little bastard.

[AngryOldDem]

2. Good question

This is what screwed things up the last time. The rules were changed back, but the word didn't get out.

To me, if you can provide proof of current address, like a light bill, that should settle it if your name is not already on the precinct roll. The only motivation for these rules, like last time, was to give the impression that voting is too much of a hassle. The polite word for this is disenfranchisement.

I just hope this is all we hear about this, that this doesn't ping-pong between judges from now until Nov. 1. And since Blackwell is going all out to get the black vote, you may not hear too much out of him about this.

[POAS]

3. i believe the rules regarding

ID requirements still stand. This ruling was on the onerous rules and penalties set against voter registration drives.

Quoting from the article:

"In the lawsuit, filed in July, the plaintiffs argued that criminal penalties for violating voterregistration rules could deter people from canvassing. The law requires each person who registers voters to return the forms either in person or by mail to the local board of elections.

In the past, a canvasser could return forms to a church or institution promoting a voterregistration drive. Those groups could forward the forms to the local elections board."

[BillORightsMan]

4. from Cincy5TV

Federal Judge Tosses New Voter Registration Rules

The judge said that, in light of her ruling, voters should ignore the references to the criminal penalties on forms used to sign up new voters. She gave the secretary of state's office five days to remove references to the rules and penalties on its Web site.
~snip~
The ruling applies only to the parts of the election law dealing with voter registration. The rest of the law was not affected.

Does this clear it up for you a bit?

[geiger]

5. And the holiday weekend organizing will be done

but at least it's something. Thanks for clarifying. I couldn't remember if I had seen that or not.