OH-15: Ohio Supreme Court Tosses Provisional Ballots

The all Republican Ohio Supreme Court has tossed around 1,000 contested provisional ballots in Franklin County.

They've been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court before, and they sure as Hell better be this time. I still believe Kilroy will win, but it's flat out wrong to discard ballots on a technicality for purely political reasons. It's time our Supreme Court gets smacked back into it's place.

Statements:

From the Secretary of State's office:

"The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled against counting the provisional ballots of approximately 1,000 Ohioans who were clearly eligible and qualified to vote.  We agree with the Supreme Court's characterization of Ohio's provisional ballot laws as '…a quagmire of intricate and imprecisely stated requirements, including internal inconsistencies and multiple affirmations and declinations…'  As we saw at the Ohio Election Summit and see again today, the General Assembly must thoughtfully review and update Ohio's provisional ballot laws next year."

"It is important to note that Secretary Brunner issued clear pre-election directives as part of her efforts to defend Ohio's provisional ballot statutes in a federal court case.  Those directives were subsequently incorporated into a federal court order.  Nevertheless, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled against counting these provisional ballots."

From Chris Redfern:

"I am disappointed in the partisan spirit of this ruling.  The all-Republican Ohio Supreme Court has successfully disenfranchised more than 1,000 eligible, qualified Ohio voters by applying hyper-technical standards to deny their right to vote.  When faced with comparable questions regarding the eligibility of McCain voters during the heat of the presidential campaign, the court took the opposite approach, bending over backwards to protect voters' rights.  There appears to be a double standard at work."