Reply #8: OH Sen. adjusts absentee balloting:Hotly debated plan would require ID [View All]

[Algorem]

Senate adjusts absentee balloting
Hotly debated plan would require ID

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/112971448893510.xml&coll=2

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - A bill expanding access to absentee voting - but with ID requirements and other restrictions missing from a proposed constitutional amendment - cleared the Ohio Senate after an unusually raucous session Tuesday.

Senate Democratic Leader C.J. Prentiss culminated a three-hour debate on the no-fault absentee voting bill by plastering masking tape across her face to symbolize the voter-suppression measures her caucus believes are in the bill. They argued that the ID requirement would be hardest on the poor and elderly.

The legislation, which heads to the House, would lift limits on the use of absentee ballots, but would also require identification to use them. It also excludes a 10-day grace period for receiving the ballots, which is contained in November's Issue 2.

Issue 2 is one of four constitutional amendments on the ballot backed by a predominantly Democratic group called Reform Ohio Now...