Ohio absentee ballots scanned early

[bigtree]

Ohio absentee ballots scanned early

12 minutes ago

CLEVELAND - Cuyahoga County elections officials began scanning absentee ballots Monday with a judge's permission, despite a request by state officials that counties hold off until Election Day.

About 70,000 ballots needed to be scanned in the county, the state's most populous, Cuyahoga elections director Michael Vu said. His office was determined to get through all of them Monday, even if it took until midnight.

Franklin County, which includes Columbus, also started scanning absentee ballots Monday, officials said.

The Ohio secretary of state's office initially directed counties not to scan absentee ballots before Tuesday, but Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dan Gaul ruled Friday that all 88 counties could start Monday as long as security precautions were taken.

On Saturday, the secretary of state's office said counties must secure access to scanning locations, ensure that two bipartisan overseers control absentee ballots and that totals not be disclosed until the polls close on Tuesday. Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the state's chief elections official, is the Republican candidate for governor.

report: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061106/ap_on_el_ge/counting_absentees



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Good news on several levels...

Not only do the votes actually get counted, but it's one more spoke in Blackwell's wheels and an indication that the courts aren't gonna put up with too much of his bullshit.

[OnyxCollie]

2. I brought my absentee ballot to the BOE last week.

When I first got my ballot, I was told I did not need to present ID. (They even included a little handout saying so.) On the way to the BOE to return my ballot, I heard on the local Air America affiliate that the judge's order to vote without ID had been upheld. So, when I turned in my ballot I was told I needed to present ID. I told the election worker I had just heard that I didn't need to present ID. She said, "That lasted about three hours." I loudly cursed Ken Blackheart for his new poll tax to disenfranchise voters and presented my ID.

I returned to the BOE with my girlfriend so she could get her ballot. I asked the election worker, "If I had mailed in my ballot without any ID info, what would have happened? Would you have thrown it out?" She replied, "No, we would accept it." I started to complain loudly that this was a charade and a fraud, at which time my girlfriend hustled me out of there.

After leaving the BOE, I thought I should have asked the election worker to present something to prove what she said. (Max Weber's Ideal Bureaucracy says written, formal rules are required for procedures.) After all, if the law is to present ID, and she said my ballot would be accepted without ID, isn't that violating the law? If there was no written directive to accept absentee ballots mailed in without ID info, wouldn't she be following the law at her own discretion? (Weber's Bureaucracy allows a small amount of discretion.) How do I know there might be others that WOULD follow the law?

WHY SHOULD I TRUST ANY OF THESE PEOPLE?