Oct 17 - 46/45 - McCain +01
Throwing Away Votes In Akron
Press: This post is featured on The Plain Dealer's Wide Open Blog
According to the Beacon, the Summit County Board of Elections counted provisional ballots from the September 11th primary election. Going into yesterday, the official results had DeAndre Forney up by 4 votes. After the provisional count, the board now has incumbent Renee Greene up by 3 votes. I have no further details on how the votes broke down because they have yet to be released. There will now be an automatic partial recount on October 2nd. My understanding is that this partial recount will be a machine recount of 2 of the 18 precincts in Ward 4. A manual recount of all 18 precincts requires candidate DeAndre Forney to pay $1,000 out of pocket. I do not understand why in a race decided by only 3-4 votes that they would not do a complete manual recount. What else is the Board of Elections for other than to make sure that our election results are counted properly? If their rules acknowledge that a recount in a race within .5% is a good idea, then why not recount the entire thing without placing an undue financial burden on a candidate? Any good campaign has spent every dime they have by Election Day. Coming up with $1,000 in a week is tough.
There is a second more important issue. The post office held 200 provisional ballots until the day after the election. State law says that ballots received after the election are not to be counted. The post office acknowledges that it made the mistake in handling the ballots. The city sued the state to have the votes count. Judge Teodosio ruled that the city lacks standing and threw out the case. Maybe one of the lawyers who reads this site can explain to me why the city would lack standing. I think the Board of Elections should be required by law to notify those 200 voters whose votes were suppressed in the post office that their votes did not count and will be thrown away instead. How is a person supposed to know that their vote wasn't counted so that they can have standing to bring the suit?
Of course I want DeAndre to prevail because I know he will make a great councilman, but more importantly I want everyone's vote to count. This hotly contested primary election in Ward 4 lead to record turnout and voter participation. Nothing would be worse than to throw those 200 votes away. That kind of disenfranchisement has a lasting impact on voters. Regardless of our politics, those who believe in our Democracy want people to vote. We want people to participate. It is one of the most basic rights of our citizens. People who drop their vote at the post office must have the same confidence as those who cast their votes at the polls that their votes will count. I hope that the City of Akron appeals its suit to protect the votes of its citizens.
This story is developing and I will share more details this week as they become available.
According to the Beacon, the Summit County Board of Elections counted provisional ballots from the September 11th primary election. Going into yesterday, the official results had DeAndre Forney up by 4 votes. After the provisional count, the board now has incumbent Renee Greene up by 3 votes. I have no further details on how the votes broke down because they have yet to be released. There will now be an automatic partial recount on October 2nd. My understanding is that this partial recount will be a machine recount of 2 of the 18 precincts in Ward 4. A manual recount of all 18 precincts requires candidate DeAndre Forney to pay $1,000 out of pocket. I do not understand why in a race decided by only 3-4 votes that they would not do a complete manual recount. What else is the Board of Elections for other than to make sure that our election results are counted properly? If their rules acknowledge that a recount in a race within .5% is a good idea, then why not recount the entire thing without placing an undue financial burden on a candidate? Any good campaign has spent every dime they have by Election Day. Coming up with $1,000 in a week is tough.There is a second more important issue. The post office held 200 provisional ballots until the day after the election. State law says that ballots received after the election are not to be counted. The post office acknowledges that it made the mistake in handling the ballots. The city sued the state to have the votes count. Judge Teodosio ruled that the city lacks standing and threw out the case. Maybe one of the lawyers who reads this site can explain to me why the city would lack standing. I think the Board of Elections should be required by law to notify those 200 voters whose votes were suppressed in the post office that their votes did not count and will be thrown away instead. How is a person supposed to know that their vote wasn't counted so that they can have standing to bring the suit?
Of course I want DeAndre to prevail because I know he will make a great councilman, but more importantly I want everyone's vote to count. This hotly contested primary election in Ward 4 lead to record turnout and voter participation. Nothing would be worse than to throw those 200 votes away. That kind of disenfranchisement has a lasting impact on voters. Regardless of our politics, those who believe in our Democracy want people to vote. We want people to participate. It is one of the most basic rights of our citizens. People who drop their vote at the post office must have the same confidence as those who cast their votes at the polls that their votes will count. I hope that the City of Akron appeals its suit to protect the votes of its citizens.This story is developing and I will share more details this week as they become available.
By Kyle - 9/25/2007
17 Comments:
Help Create Democracy 2.0
Week Released: September 17-21, 2007
The Millennial Generation, including myself, is interested in being an
active part of changing public policy. This interest led me to be a part of
Mobilize.org¹s Democracy 2.0 Campaign.
On July 4, Mobilize.org began the Democracy 2.0 project to call attention to
the ways that our democratic process and institutions are properly serving
and failing to serve the interests of Americans, specifically young
Americans. The purpose of Democracy 2.0 is to call attention to the main
problems of our current political system, highlight the distinct
characteristics of the Millennial Generation, and provide guidelines for
change to help cultivate a renewed political process in America.
Currently, our political system is trying to manage a 21st century society
with 18th century political institutions. Democracy 2.0 will upgrade our
current political system, empowering citizens to identify community
problems, propose solutions, be a part of the implementation of these
solutions, and change the way politics is done in this country.
To begin this endeavor, Mobilize.org asked a series of questions and
collected data from youth, ages 16-30 that will be reviewed and evaluated by
Democracy 2.0 Ambassadors at the Democracy 2.0 Summit on October 3, 2007,
with the intention of releasing the Democracy 2.0 Declaration of Our
Generation. The Declaration of our Generation is a short statement of
principles describing a citizen-centered approach to democracy. The
Declaration will focus on three themes: 1) What currently works and what
does not work in our democracy; 2) What defines our generation; and 3) What
Democracy 2.0 should look like.
The Declaration will call attention to areas in which the government is
succeeding and failing to serve the public interest, highlight the unique
and defining characteristics of our generation, and provide guidelines that
will serve as a call to action for American citizens to help create this
renewed form of democracy.
I wanted to mention this opportunity since every posting here has an
interest in this. Mobilize.org is looking for people who want to serve as
Democracy 2.0 Online Ambassadors to be a part of the drafting process. If
you have any questions, please shoot me an e-mail at brendan.chan@mail.utexas.edu.
This shit pisses me off to no end.
Side note: Anyone caught tinkering with ballots or obstructing democracy should be deported.
Millennial Generation?
No wonder this reads like lines of gaming code.
The Forney vote was evidence that every vote counts. If a new person can be elected by 4 votes, then each vote is critical. Stuff like this is what leads people to think their vote doesn't count. And how can we argue that it does?
Wait a minute. You can't change the rules after the election. Late votes don't count. How hard is that to understand?
The rule is (and it said this on the actual absentee ballot material) you have to have your absentee ballot at the board of elections by 7:30pm on election day, regardless of postmark. Period. That's been the rule for a long time. These ballot were not delivered before 7:30pm on that day. They do not count.
Is this the best rule? Maybe not. Is it too late to change the rules for the 2007 primary election? Yes. A lawsuit, brought on by anyone, is not the way to change how we count votes.
Rewriting the law is the only way. There is nothing that can be done to make those late votes count.
Gariel, they were not late votes. The post office admitted that some of the ballots were mailed as early as two weeks prior to the election. The issue isn't the post mark. The issue is admitted post office error. This case of these votes is unique and sets an unacceptable precedent going forward.
Hey, maybe somebody should sue the post office; interference in an election is a fourth degree felony. I'm not saying this doesn't suck.
However, the possession of ballots at a federal post office does not equate to the receipt of ballots at a county board of elections. The ballots were not received. The rule is the rule is the rule.
If I was the winning candidate, there wouldn't be anyway in hell I would cede victory. (and I'm not taking sides here, I don't even know what candidates were affected) The votes that were received under the rules were counted. End of election.
Kyle, I hope your guy wins. If the post office made the mistake and the people voted on time, then they should count. Gabriel does make some good points as well, though.
Looks like someone messed up. Where is the outrage and virtiol aimed at Jennifer Brunner, Secretary of State? Ken Blackwell sure as hell would have been mentioned in the comments by now if he was still SOS.
Brunner might be incompetent. But in Blackwell's case you'd be dealing with malice and forethought.
Not a fair comparison.
I am sure her incompetence is fine with you though.
Kyle,
Having not read Judge T. Teodosio's ruling, nor being familiar with all of the laws and regulations in the State of Ohio I can only surmise as to why he found that the City of Akron had no standing. However, standing is the ability of the plaintiff/petitioner to demonstrate that they have a sufficient connection to/have suffered sufficient harm to bring the suit. One can not bring a suit to challenge the constitutionality of a law without being able to show that they are harmed by the law. So, maybe DeAndre would have standing but apparently the city can not show harm. I'd be interested in reading the opinion though.
Ben, you blog with that level of insight ?
Who's your offensive coordinator, Rob Chudzinski?
you have to love it---my person may be incompetent but yours is malevolent therefore not only do I win I will question your intelligence.
WHO THE HELL EVER SAID BRUNNER WAS "MY PERSON"? Go practice your ventriloquism act somewhere else Fred.
So how do we ever really know if this kind of mindset is NOT causing this particular kind of problem?:
That settles it!
I'm off to take that civil service test so that I can become a postal worker and hopefully screw democracy for all!
Bwwwaaaaah!.... maniacal laughter rings out...
Sounds kind of over the top, but it is possible, no? I mean, how many cheating pricks do you know who care how wrong/ unethical their method of cheating is? And just shrugging your shoulders and claiming it was some kind of mistake is THE perfect cover-up, right?
As I said in the post, I guess the only people who would have standing would be the people who's votes are going to be thrown out. I think at minimum the post office should be required to notify those voters.
Don't drag Jennifer Brunner OR Ken Blackwell into this. These have been the rules since absentee ballots were first used.
This is about a post office mess up and a bunch of people who don't understand how votes are counted.
The Ohio secretary of state , past or present, has nothing to do with this case. She doesn't even decide these policies; the legislature does. She can only suggest changes for future elections.
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