Ohio Secretary of State says Votes cast at wrong place won't count
Cuyahoga Co. defies ballot order:
The elections board in Ohio's largest county said Wednesday it will direct voters to their correct polling place on Nov. 2 but will accept ballots from anyone who insists on voting at the wrong precinct, despite a directive to keep them from doing so. If a voter in Cuyahoga County insists on casting a ballot, even at the wrong polling place, the board will allow it but only after telling the voter that the vote may not be counted, said Jane Platten, board administrator. "We will make every effort to find what precinct the voter should be in and direct that voter to that precinct. There will be times that the voter will say, 'I want to vote and I want to vote here,'" Platten said. Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had sent a directive to the state's 88 county boards of elections, advising them of state law concerning the collection of provisional ballots, which voters may use if they have moved within Ohio but failed to update their registrations. The directive states that "under no circumstances shall precinct pollworkers issue a provisional ballot to a person whose address is not located in the precinct, or portion of the precinct, in which the person desires to vote." Instead, if voters show up at the wrong polling place, poll workers must find out their correct voting places and tell them the location, the directive says. More than 100,000 provisional votes were cast in the 2000 election. [ more
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The elections board in Ohio's largest county said Wednesday it will direct voters to their correct polling place on Nov. 2 but will accept ballots from anyone who insists on voting at the wrong precinct, despite a directive to keep them from doing so. If a voter in Cuyahoga County insists on casting a ballot, even at the wrong polling place, the board will allow it but only after telling the voter that the vote may not be counted, said Jane Platten, board administrator. "We will make every effort to find what precinct the voter should be in and direct that voter to that precinct. There will be times that the voter will say, 'I want to vote and I want to vote here,'" Platten said. Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had sent a directive to the state's 88 county boards of elections, advising them of state law concerning the collection of provisional ballots, which voters may use if they have moved within Ohio but failed to update their registrations. The directive states that "under no circumstances shall precinct pollworkers issue a provisional ballot to a person whose address is not located in the precinct, or portion of the precinct, in which the person desires to vote." Instead, if voters show up at the wrong polling place, poll workers must find out their correct voting places and tell them the location, the directive says. More than 100,000 provisional votes were cast in the 2000 election. [ more
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more ]