Ohio’s elections chief and advocates for the homeless are making their final arguments in a federal lawsuit that could affect how thousands of ballots are cast and counted in the swing state. The advocates, along with the Ohio Democratic Party, are suing Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted over changes made in 2014 to requirements for absentee or provisional ballots. The two sides reiterated their arguments and findings in court briefs last week and are expected to submit their final filings with the court on Thursday. The case would then be left to the judge to decide. … At issue are the laws and procedures for absentee and provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are those cast when a voter’s identity or registration is in question, among other reasons. The voter’s eligibility is verified later.
Among other changes, the two laws challenged in the suit require voters to provide certain identifying information when submitting their absentee or provisional ballots. Voters must include their name, signature, a valid form of ID, address and birthdate.
The Democrats and advocates argue the laws create new hurdles for voters, particularly members of minority groups, and amount to modern-day literacy tests.
In their recent brief, they told the court that Ohio has shown “no legitimate, strong or necessary” reason for imposing the changes.
The plaintiffs say the laws, along with Husted’s directives, fail to provide elections boards with uniform standards for deciding whether to reject or count ballots. Instead, they say, that’s left to discretion of the 88 county boards, violating voters’ equal protection rights. They point to instances where invalid ballots were counted and valid ballots were tossed because of technicalities.
Full Article: Final arguments being made in dispute over ballots in Ohio – State – Ohio.