Inadvertent Disenfranchisement

On Friday morning, I was joined by my friend Bob Weidman, guitar player in my college band Aesthetic Pig, longtime Aaron Consulting employee, and jaded left-leaning political prognosticator. Bob worked with me in Cincinnati on the failed 2004 presidential election. Bob drove down from Minnesota to help us make up for our failure to turn Hamilton County and Ohio in the last election.

We picked up Ina, a 62-year-old voter in the morning and brought her to the Board of Elections to vote. On that day, the two-hour, 200-person line wrapped around the corner. Ina’s heart condition prevented her from standing for that long, so she was able to vote immediately.

Overall the process was orderly, nobody left the line, and the board of elections checked people in pretty efficiently. However, in the afternoon, Board of Elections staffers began walking the line and asking people of they changed their address since they registered.

Those people who answered affirmatively were directed to a different line once they got in and would be made to cast a provisional ballot. Those ballots wouldn’t be counted until well after election day, and are often subject to challenges. A New York Times piece the came out that very day describes in detail how Ohio pushes a much greater percentage of voters to provisional ballots than other states.

The staffers were just tying to be more efficient, but by confronting people with this question they were, in some cases, creating unnecessary provisional ballots. Students sometimes register at home but provided a school address. Others were moving shortly after they registered or voted (3 couples reported they were moving on the weekend). Still others had moved in the past year but couldn’t remember where they registered, so they just said yes. In about 20 minutes a dozen voters were made to cast provisional ballots.

I conferred with the election protection lawyer and arranged an impromptu meeting with the Board of Elections administrator, who is a very competent and reasonable man. After a brief discussion, he was persuaded to have his staff stand down. That resolved the issue, at least for that day.

This is a good illustration how even well-meaning staffers can make decisions that inadvertently disenfranchise voters. Imagine how much worse it can get when supporters of one party actively work to create problems for voters.

In all more than 2,100 people voted early that day. The total number in Hamilton county is in excess of 20,000 so far. Combined with the returned absentee ballots, we now have 100,000 votes, 20% of the total ballots cast in 2004. The absentee ballots are 60% Democrats so far. Based on the overwhelming support on the line (at least 90%) I project that we are likely 22,500 votes ahead in Hamilton County. In 2004, George W. Bush took Hamilton by 22,937 votes. Clearly this is an excellent start.