Posted: November 17, 2008
Plaintiff in Skaggs also has confusing absentee ballot status
EL@M posted an item before the election about problems with absentee ballots such as voters making technical mistakes that may have caused their ballots to be rejected. Constitutional law professor and EL@M fellow, Ruth Colker, wrote here about her experience with absentee voting and a technical mistake that almost caused her ballot to be rejected. When she noticed the status of her absentee ballot was "mailed", not "received", she spent hours trying to find out what the problem was and eventually was assured her ballot would count. Interestingly, plaintiff Kyle Fannin in State of Ohio ex rel. Skaggs v. Brunner, a lawsuit seeking to exclude provisional ballots if their envelopes are not filled out in a certain way, also has an absentee ballot status of "mailed" instead of "received". It is possible the website is not up to date and it is not clear if all absentee ballots with such a status have or had a deficiency, but in Professor Colker's case, the ballot envelope was deemed deficient. Voters had until Nov. 14 to clear up any problems with their absentee ballots according to Directive 2008-109.
PDF files in this site require
Commentary
Silence of the Lambs
Dale A. Oesterle
With the election of 2012 now well over and past the second inauguration of the incumbent President, the historical analysis of the events has begun and will last as long as written human history lasts. An interesting tidbit may already be lost to the majesty of the moment.
The voters of three very different states, Alaska, New Hampshire, and Ohio, all had an opportunity to call state constitutional conventions. In each state the voters turned the opportunity down by very similar votes, 68%, 64% and 68% respectively against.
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