An e-mail from the Fair Elections Legal Network about voting in Ohio.

Also thanks to Erica America & Kristin for the heads up.

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To follow-up on the discussion during yesterday's call on early voting
in Ohio, FELN has drafted a short memo outlining the details of early
voting in Ohio and explaining why it is important in particular for
students to vote early - the ID requirements during early vote are
actually easier than on Election Day, so out of state students (those
without Ohio driver's license) will have an easier time during early
vote - during early voting they only have to give their SS# and they
should be allowed to vote.  On Election Day, they will have to produce
some kind of documentation that lists their current school address,
which may be difficult for many students who live on campus and get all
their mail delivered to a PO Box.  Some schools are providing
documentation to students with their residential address specifically
for the purpose of assisting with voting but this is not true of every
school.  Early voting is a means of avoiding this problem.



Also, in terms of provisional voting in Ohio - if an individual does not
have the proper ID at the polls, they have to vote provisionally, but
the voter does not have to provide ID at any point to ensure that their
provisional ballot will be counted.  The local election officials review
the provisional ballot applications and as long as the social security
number provided on the application matches the social security number
listed for the voter in the voter file, the provisional ballot will be
counted.  So it is important to make sure that all voters in Ohio are
reminded that if they have trouble voting because of problems with
identification, they are entitled to vote provisionally.



Let me know if anybody has any questions.



Sarah



Sarah Brannon
Staff Attorney
Fair Elections Legal Network
1730 Rhode Island Avenue NW
Suite 712
Washington DC 20036
202-331-0114
email: sbrannon@fairelectionsnetwork.com