Reply #26: OH: Voters Rights Groups File Suit to Overturn Restrictive Registration [View All]

[rumpel]

Rules in Ohio

Common Dreams -Newswire

NEW YORK - July 7 - A group of civic organizations filed a lawsuit today seeking to overturn restrictions on voter registration in the state of Ohio. The requirements laid out by the state drastically limit the ability of civic groups to register new voters and threaten individual registration workers with felony charges for minor mistakes handling forms. The rules will limit voter registration, unnecessarily exclude eligible voters from the election process, and suppress the vote in Ohio.

The complaint filed today in United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, raises several concerns with House Bill 3 and the rules and procedures set forth by the Secretary of State, including:

In the past, citizens working to register voters were able to turn in the completed forms to a civic group or church that would review the forms for accuracy, turn them into the registrar, and follow up later to make sure the voter was actually registered. Now, workers collecting voter registration forms would be forbidden from doing that and would be subject to felony charges if the forms were to be handed in late or not directly to registrars' offices.

Rules that require online training discriminate against low income citizens who don’t have computers and some voter registration groups and churches which may have extremely limited access to computers.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0707-14.htm