Ohio GOP to Pass New "NC-like" Voting Restrictions

[muon2]

I thank God everyday that I live in a state with liberalized voting laws.  The SoS here is pushing for online voter registration and early voting.

Hearing what's going on in these Republican states is maddening in a way I can't really express.  Don't give up, even if you have to jump through flaming hoops and wait for a day straight to vote.  Make your voice heard.

IL just approved online voting this year and I like the way it was implemented. It requires a lookup in the SoS data base of drivers and holders of state IDs. The database includes the actual resident's location and info about visitor drivers who are not residents for voting. It's actually a stronger check than the system of precinct registrars who only take a signature affirmation that the person is qualified to vote from the location entered in the form. I don't know why Pubs wouldn't like it.

We've had early voting for many years here. I see no problems with it for general elections, and it definitely reduces the number of absentee votes which in turn speeds up the reporting of election results. One downside to early voting that I've seen is for the primary. Candidates have a habit of dropping out of big primary races in the month before the election day; just think about the presidential primary process. That causes a lot of wasted votes, and may well have been decisive in the IL gov race in 2010. Bob Schillerstrom dropped out with three weeks to go and received over 7000 votes. He came from the same county as Kirk Dillard and it is widely believed that the bulk of those would have gone to Dillard or Jim Ryan, with few going to winner Bill Brady who beat Dillard by less than 200 votes. Dillard was also polling much better against Quinn and given Quinn's close margin over Brady in Nov, many observers believed that Dillard would have beat Quinn.

[muon2]

bump

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2014/02/21/twin-bills-set-for-governors-signature-today-would-limit-voting-rights

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Shortening the early voting period may not be as partisan as one thinks. The Dems in IL did the same thing last year for this year's election. Most voters were using either the first or last couple of days and counties were complaining of the expense to staff a largely unused middle week.

[muon2]

I still think one solution is to just adopt the Canadian voter ID system. It's reasonably secure but provides a straightforward way to deal with voters who show up without an ID.

[muon2]

Someone might register before achieving full citizenship on the assumption that citizenship at the time of the election is good enough -- just as it is possible for someone to register at age 17 so long as one turns 18 on or before Election Day. We should all know about that.

I don't know if it is the case everywhere, but in South Carolina, not only can 17 year olds register, they can vote in primary elections so long they will be 18 when the corresponding general election is held.

This is true in IL starting this year.

[muon2]

I still think one solution is to just adopt the Canadian voter ID system. It's reasonably secure but provides a straightforward way to deal with voters who show up without an ID.

The issue is that making it harder for people to vote is a feature for the authors of these laws, not a bug. A solution that includes voter ID but which doesn't discourage voting won't fly.

For some this may be true, but I've also found that the issue has become so polarized that when I outline the Canadian system to Dems they recoil as if its the the worst suppression plan. They are quite surprised when I tell them where it comes from.

[muon2]

bump 2

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/25/3329131/ohio-restricts-early-voting-hours-key-black-turnout/

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

This doesn't seem so strange since in IL where the Dems wrote the early voting law there is no voting the two days before the election and short hours on Sunday (12-3), including no hours on Sunday except for the counties' designated permanent early voting location.