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Ballot system in Ohio unfair, suit says

Counties vary on how absentee applications, ballots are dispersed.

Amy Hanauer is the executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based liberal leaning, independent think tank. Contributed photo

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Staff and wire reports 6:10 PM Saturday, September 4, 2010

COLUMBUS — Four voters are challenging Ohio’s increasingly popular absentee ballot system, accusing the state in a federal lawsuit of setting up an unfair system where some counties pay the postage on ballot applications and others don’t.

Voters are subjected to different rules depending on which county they live in, violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, attorneys for the four southern Ohio plaintiffs, all Republicans, argue in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, Sept. 1, asks U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott in Cincinnati to require all 88 counties to follow the same procedures for mailing and processing absentee ballots.

In the Dayton area Montgomery, Greene, Miami and Warren county boards of election all require voters to put stamps on their applications and ballots, but if the envelopes arrive with insufficient postage the boards will cover the cost.

Greene, Miami and Warren counties send absentee ballot applications upon request. Montgomery County has a policy of sending absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters during even year major elections, and so will do it for the November election, said Steve Harsman, Montgomery County Board of Elections director.

He said the board consolidated precincts to become more efficient and the more absentee ballots that are cast, the shorter lines will be at those larger consolidated precinct polling places.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s elections chief, said Friday the state is reviewing the lawsuit.

The timing of the lawsuit could be a challenge for county officials, who are preparing for a November election in which Ohioans will vote for governor and a U.S. senator.

Counties that encompass some of the state’s biggest cities, including Columbus and Cincinnati, already have mailed absentee voter applications, and other counties soon will do the same.

Democrats say the lawsuit is politically motivated.

“This case is the first in what we expect to be a long line of Republican lawsuits intended to cause confusion, deny access and suppress votes,” said Seth Bringman, spokesman for the state Democratic Party.

Ohio Republican Party spokesman Jason Mauk said the party is not part of the lawsuit but didn’t discourage it and supports the principle behind it.

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