Judge blocks Ohio’s rules for absentee, provisional ballots

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge blocked certain requirements for how thousands of ballots are counted in the swing state, saying in a Tuesday decision the policies are unconstitutional and violate the Voting Rights Act.

At issue are two laws the Republican-led state legislature passed in 2014 and how they are implemented.

Among other changes, the laws require voters to provide certain identifying information when casting absentee or provisional ballots. Voters must include their names, signatures, valid forms of ID, addresses and birthdates. Ballots from legitimate voters could be rejected due to errors or omissions.

Provisional ballots are those cast when a voter’s identity or registration is in question. The voter’s eligibility is verified later.

U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley said the laws could harm black voters in particular.

“The Ohio General Assembly took action after the disastrous 2004 election to expand voters’ access to absentee and provisional balloting, and the rollback of these improvements will disproportionately harm African-American voters,” the judge said in his decision.

Advocates for the homeless and the Ohio Democratic Party had sued the state’s Republican elections chief over the laws and procedures, saying they created hurdles for voters, particularly minorities.

They pointed to instances of invalid ballots being counted and valid ballots being tossed as a result of the   laws.

Attorneys for the state, which voted for Democrat Barack Obama in the last two presidential elections and for Republican George W. Bush in the two elections before those, said the challenged laws were reasonable and nondiscriminatory and imposed a minimal burden on voters. The judge found otherwise.

The judge blocked Secretary of State Jon Husted from requiring full and accurate completion of absentee- and provisional-ballot forms before otherwise qualified voters’ ballots could be counted. The judge also blocked sections that reduced the time voters could cure errors and prohibited poll worker assistance.

Husted said he would appeal the judge’s decision, which came two weeks after another federal judge ruled that state law trimming early voting was unconstitutional.

“The sad reality is that much of Ohio’s election laws are no longer made by their elected representatives, but rather by unelected federal judges in response to politically-motivated lawsuits,” Husted said in a statement.

In trial and in court documents, the state’s attorneys cited election data that showed acceptance rates for such ballots improved after the laws were put in place in 2014. They said the laws help register unregistered voters and update voter registration information and have made more votes count.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Subodh Chandra said his clients received the relief they sought from the court.

“The state of Ohio has been held accountable again for disenfranchising legitimate voters,” Chandra said.

The judge heard testimony from county elections officials, election experts and others during a bench trial in March.

The lawsuit dates to a 2006 challenge of a law that specified when provisional ballots could be counted toward vote totals. A 2010 court decree stemming from that lawsuit has governed Ohio’s provisional ballots and voter identification requirements. The judge ruled last year the case could be updated to include the challenge to the 2014 laws.