[Mb-civic] Big G.O.P. Bid to Challenge and Discourage New Voters at Polls in Ohio

[Kevin Walz]

>
> Big G.O.P. Bid to Challenge and Discourage Voters at Polls in Ohio
>
> October 23, 2004
>  By MICHAEL MOSS
>
>
>
>
>
> Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps
> yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling
> places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of
> voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.
>
> Party officials say their effort is necessary to guard
> against fraud arising from aggressive moves by the
> Democrats to register tens of thousands of new voters in
> Ohio, seen as one of the most pivotal battlegrounds in the
> Nov. 2 elections.
>
> Election officials in other swing states, from Arizona to
> Wisconsin and Florida, say they are bracing for similar
> efforts by Republicans to challenge new voters at polling
> places, reflecting months of disputes over voting
> procedures and the anticipation of an election as close as
> the one in 2000.
>
> Ohio election officials said they had never seen so large a
> drive to prepare for Election Day challenges. They said
> they were scrambling yesterday to be ready for disruptions
> in the voting process as well as alarm and complaints among
> voters. Some officials said they worried that the
> challenges could discourage or even frighten others waiting
> to vote.
>
> Ohio Democrats were struggling to match the Republicans'
> move, which had been rumored for weeks. Both parties had
> until 4 p.m. to register people they had recruited to
> monitor the election. Republicans said they had enlisted
> 3,600 by the deadline, many in heavily Democratic urban
> neighborhoods of Cleveland, Dayton and other cities. Each
> recruit was to be paid $100.
>
> The Democrats, who tend to benefit more than Republicans
> from large turnouts, said they had registered more than
> 2,000 recruits to try to protect legitimate voters rather
> than weed out ineligible ones.
>
> Republican officials said they had no intention of
> disrupting voting but were concerned about the possibility
> of fraud involving thousands of newly registered Democrats.
>
>
> "The organized left's efforts to, quote unquote, register
> voters - I call them ringers - have created these
> problems," said James P. Trakas, a Republican co-chairman
> in Cuyahoga County.
>
> Both parties have waged huge campaigns in the battleground
> states to register millions of new voters, and the
> developments in Ohio provided an early glimpse of how those
> efforts may play out on Election Day.
>
> Ohio election officials said that by state law, the
> parties' challengers would have to show "reasonable"
> justification for doubting the qualifications of a voter
> before asking a poll worker to question that person. And,
> the officials said, challenges could be made on four main
> grounds: whether the voter is a citizen, is at least 18, is
> a resident of the county and has lived in Ohio for the
> previous 30 days.
>
> Elections officials in Ohio said they hoped the criteria
> would minimize the potential for disruption. But Democrats
> worry that the challenges will inevitably delay the process
> and frustrate the voters.
>
> "Our concern is Republicans will be challenging in large
> numbers for the purpose of slowing down voting, because
> challenging takes a long time,'' said David Sullivan, the
> voter protection coordinator for the national Democratic
> Party in Ohio. "And creating long lines causes our people
> to leave without voting.''
>
> The Republican challenges in Ohio have already begun.
> Yesterday, party officials submitted a list of about 35,000
> registered voters whose mailing addresses, the Republicans
> said, were questionable. After registering, they said, each
> of the voters was mailed a notice, and in each case the
> notice was returned to election officials as undeliverable.
>
>
> In Cuyahoga County alone, which includes the heavily
> Democratic neighborhoods of Cleveland, the Republican Party
> submitted more than 14,000 names of voters for county
> election officials to scrutinize for possible
> irregularities. The party said it had registered more than
> 1,400 people to challenge voters in that county.
>
> Among the main swing states, only Ohio, Florida and
> Missouri require the parties to register poll watchers
> before Election Day; elsewhere, party observers can
> register on the day itself. In several states officials
> have alerted poll workers to expect a heightened interest
> by the parties in challenging voters. In some cases, poll
> workers, many of them elderly, have been given training to
> deal with any abusive challenging.
>
> Mr. Trakas, the Republican co-chairman in Cuyahoga County,
> said the recruits would be equipped with lists of voters
> who the party suspects are not county residents or
> otherwise qualified to vote.
>
> The recruits will be trained next week, said Mr. Trakas,
> who added that he had not decided whether to open the
> training sessions to the public or reporters. Among other
> things, he said, the recruits will be taught how to
> challenge mentally disabled voters who are assisted by
> anyone other than their legal guardians. In previous
> elections, he said, bus drivers who had taken group-home
> residents to polling places often helped them vote.
>
> Reno Oradini, the Cuyahoga County election board attorney,
> said a challenge would in effect create impromptu courts at
> polling places as workers huddled to resolve a dispute and
> cause delays in voting. He said he was working with local
> election officials to find ways of preventing disruptions
> that could drive away impatient voters and reduce turnout.
>
> State law varies widely on voter challenges. In Colorado,
> challenged voters can sign an oath that they are indeed
> qualified to vote; voters found to have lied could be
> prosecuted, but their votes would still be counted. In
> Wisconsin, it is the challenger who must sign an oath
> stating the grounds for a challenge.
>
> "You need personal knowledge," said Kevin J. Kennedy,
> executive director of the Wisconsin State Elections Board.
> "You can't say they don't look American or don't speak
> English."
>
> National election officials said yesterday that Election
> Day challenging had been done only sporadically by the
> parties over the years, mainly in highly contested races.
> In the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election, they
> said, challenges occurred mainly after Election Day.
>
> The preparations for widespread challenging this year have
> alarmed some election officials.
>
> "This creates chaos and confusion in the polling site,"
> said R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election
> Center, an international association of election officials.
> But, he said, "most courts say it's permissible by state
> law and therefore can't be denied."
>
> In Ohio, Republicans sought to play down any concern that
> their challenging would be disruptive.
>
> "I suspect there will be challenges," said Robert T.
> Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. "But by and
> large, people will move through quickly. We want to make
> sure every eligible voter votes." He added, "99.9 percent
> will fly right by."
>
> Challengers on both sides said they were uncertain about
> what to expect. Georgiana Nye, 56, a Dayton real estate
> broker who was registered by the Republicans as a
> challenger, said she wanted to help prevent fraud and would
> accept the $100 for the 13 hours of work and training.
>
> For the Democrats in Dayton, Ronald Magoteaux, 57, a
> mechanical engineer, said he agreed to be a poll watcher
> out of concern for new voters. "I think it's sick that
> these Republicans are up to dirty tricks at the polls," Mr.
> Magoteaux said. "I believe thousands of votes were lost in
> 2000, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen in Ohio."
>
>
> Democrats said they were racing to match the Republicans,
> precinct by precinct. In some cities, like Dayton, they
> registered more challengers than the Republicans, election
> officials said. But in Cuyahoga County, where the
> Republicans said they had registered 1,436 people to
> challenge voters, or one in every precinct, Democrats said
> they had signed up only about 300.
>
> The parties are also preparing to battle over voter
> qualifications in Florida, where they had until last
> Tuesday to register challengers. In Fort Myers, Republicans
> named 100 watchers for the county's 171 precincts, up from
> 60 in 2000. But Democrats registered 300 watchers in the
> county, a sixfold increase.
>
>
>
> Nader Loses Ohio Ballot Bid
>
> COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 22 (AP)
> - The Ohio Supreme Court on Friday rejected an effort by
> Ralph Nader to get his name on the ballot, most likely
> ending his chances in the state for the Nov. 2 election.
>
> Mr. Nader wanted the court to force election boards to
> review their voter registration lists, a process he said
> could have led to the validation of petitions to place him
> on the ballot. The court ruled 6-1 against him.
>
> James Dao contributed reporting from Ohio for this article,
> and Ford Fessenden and Anthony Smith from New York.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/23/politics/campaign/23vote.html? 
> ex=1099537884&ei=1&en=f0d89e0e6d2c2a0e
>