ACLU of Ohio Sues To Block Paper Ballots

Apu writes in to inform us that the ACLU is trying to block an Ohio county from moving from touchscreen voting machines back to paper ballots. While it may seem like Cuyahoga County — which includes Cleveland — is moving in a good direction from the perspective of ballot security, the system chosen tabulates all votes at a central location. This means that voters don't get notified if their ballot contains errors, and thus they have no chance to correct it. The ACLU of Ohio is asking a federal judge for an injunction against any election in Cuyahoga County it they move to the new system.

Secret motto

[Wylfing]

Ohio! Committed to throwing elections since 1803!

Give 'Em Bingo Blotters

[queenb**ch]

Seriously.... give them bingo blotters. Make the ballot look like a bingo card. Even the biggest id10t *ought* to be able to figure that out. If you're not smart enough to figure out *how* to vote, you don't get to. - I'm calling this principle democratic darwinism.

2 cents,

QueenB.

In Arizona

[Nom du Keyboard]

In the very backwards state of Arizona, they still use paper ballots. Yet when those ballots are inserted into the ballot box, they go through a visual scanner that kicks the ballot back out immediately if it is improperly marked. While you can choose not to vote on any given ballot issue, accidentally marking more than one vote for an issue will reject the ballot immediately, and you can get a new one on the spot to correct. Paper ballots don't need to have the problems cited here, and obviously have some advantages in recounts afterwards.

Of course, by the ACLU rules, voting Republican is a source of voter error, and reason for the ballot to be rejected.

Re:Secret motto

[0xABADC0DA]

So they obviously are really, really committed to vote fraud in Ohio. If this doesn't work out, could I suggest:

* Voters drop their ballot in the box themselves, instead a poll worker has to 'reset' the voting booth after the voter leaves by taking the vote and dropping it in the box before the next voter uses it.

* Some voters get special "not" votes, where they select all the candidate they DON"T want to vote for rather than the on they DO want to vote for. Which ballot they get can be at the discretion of the poll workers, and look identical.

* Have two sets of boxes to drop votes into, marked "republican" and "democrat". If your vote was not filed in the correct box it doesn't count. Also, the "democrat" box is half the size.

* At closing, the votes are tallied separately by each poll worker. They each write their counts on a piece of paper and drop it in a hat. One is pulled out of the hat and that is the official tally. Then the votes are shredded so they can't be tampered with. ... seriously, wtf ohio?

Re:Democracy at its best

[arizwebfoot]

And remember, Democracy is two wolves and a lamb sitting down and deciding what is for lunch.

Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.

Re:Secret motto

[JimBobJoe]

Ohio! Committed to throwing elections since 1803!

I've told people here that I see no problem with the Secretary of State having a campaign reminding Ohioans to vote by saying things like: "Your vote counts! It's worth at least four California votes and six Texas votes!"