Posted: October 31, 2012
Sixth Circuit issues stay in SEIU v. Husted
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the district court’s order to count provisional ballots cast in the wrong polling place in Ohio. The Sixth Circuit found that the district court failed to distinguish the burden on voters who arrive at the correct place, but are misdirected by poll workers, from the burden on voters who arrive at a wholly incorrect voting place because the voter who “arrives at the wrong polling location cannot be said to be blameless in the same way as a right-place/wrong-precinct voter.” The court also reiterated that such a significant last-minute change to election law is disfavored, as it “disrupts the electoral process and threatens its fairness.”
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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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