Count The Vote!

There pretty much seems to be unanimous agreement that the sacks of undelivered absentee ballots uncounted in last Tuesday's primary election should be part of the process.

I talked with Joe Finley this morning and he was glad to see the movement from City Hall as well as others to make sure those 200+ ballots left on the sidelines aren't just totally blown off. Council President Marco Sommerville and Mayor Don Plusquellic made the call last night in the closing minutes of Council's regular meeting; Law Director Max Rothal made it official this morning.

When is the last time you heard agreement from Finley, Sommerville and Plusquellic? State Representative Stephen Dyer was quick to move on the issue, as noted in AkronNewsNow coverage here where Dyer explains why those votes should count. I'm also told that the Board of Elections was sympathetic but couldn't because of the spanking they would take for reaching into the think-for-themselves-common-sense political cookie jar if they just went ahead and did it. Want to get the votes counted? We can't do it but go ahead and take us to court and get Judge Tommy to order us -- we're good with that.

This one is really a no-brainer and even the Board knows it, but they are handcuffed by state law (I'm translating from SCBOE Director Bryan Williams, who always notes it is the Ohio Revised Code -- state law for guys like me) that forces the Board to ignore ballots that aren't in their hands by 7:30 p.m. when the polls close on Election Day. This year's snafu came when the Post Office didn't have ballots to pick up Tuesday but instead delivered them Wednesday.

Why do we have these conflicts in the law? Thanks to lawmakers pushing the Helping Americans Vote Act to upgrade early voting in the aftermath of the 2000 Bush-Gore battle and not making sure the due diligence extended all the way down the rest of the line. Helping people vote early by using mail-in votes (Oregon's done it for years) saves time and effort and helps avoid longer lines at the polls, but it also places you at the mercy of the postal system.

"Dave" notes in a comment on my earlier posting the USPS doesn't promise delivery on-time unless you pay extra; there's nothing in the law mandating an earlier deadline, say two days before the election, or even guaranteed delivery options. The law simply says get it in the mail, and a postmark should do the trick especially since official results aren't really official for a week to ten days later.

Back to Finley & Plusquellic: the City paid the $250 filing fee to get the lawsuit before Judge Tom Teodosio and asking for an order that the BOE count the votes, but Finley's on board on the principal of the issue. Those 200 or so votes, even if he gets every one of 'em, won't help shrink that thousand-vote deficit but it may have huge impact on the Ward 4 race Deandre Forney won over incumbent Renee Greene (four votes at last count) and the Ward 6 race where incumbent Terry Albanese squeaked by Wayne Kartler by a dozen picks. We really won't know until the forms are actually fed into those scanners and the votes are counted.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has a visit planned to share time with the local Elections board in the next two weeks; expect this kind of thing to be on the agenda.

Note: Forney spelling corrected 9/23, thanks for catching...