Ohio rejects 1000s of voter registration applications due to paper weight

"When voter registration applications were maintained for years and used to verify signatures for petitions a requirement that the cards be on 80 lb. stock paper was adopted in Ohio, that law remains on the books. Since the applications are now scanned for preservation, there is no current need to continue that requirement... In the final days before the registration deadline Ken Blackwell, [Republican] Ohio Secretary of State, has ordered the local election boards to send out new applications to applicants who have submitted registrations on the wrong paper... The local boards have been bombarded with applications and will be unable to comply with Blackwell's order before the deadline to register to vote for this November's election."

"If you have any questions on this directive, please call my Elections Division at 614-466-2585." http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/news/index2.htm

For more information, contact Carlo LoParo at 614-752-8110
Email - guide@sos.state.oh.us

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In Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) the board of elections officials are ignoring the edict because they have already had an avalanche of new registrations submitted on forms printed on the newsprint in The Plain Dealer.

"We don't have a micrometer at each desk to check the weight of the paper," said Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County election Board.

https://www.daytondailynews.com/

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Ironically, if an applicant downloaded the federal form onto paper that is not regulation, that application will be accepted in compliance with federal law. So in reality there is no substantive issue with the weight of the paper, the Secretary's order is simply to create a roadblock to limit new registration.

Katherine Harris should have been so cunning.

http://www.daytonforkerry.com/Blackwell.pdf

or Dayton Daily News (subscription only)

http://www.dailykos.com/user/Thistime

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Ohio Secretary of State breaks federal law:
1971 Federal Voting Rights Act
(posted by kos) Sec. 1971. - Voting rights... (2) No person acting under color of law shall - ...(B) deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/27/183248/535