Context of 'Afternoon, October 29, 2004: Ohio Attorney General Refuses to Bar Voter Challenges on Election Day'

The Ohio Republican Party, headed by Robert T. Bennett, sends 232,000 letters to all of Ohio’s voters who registered between January 1 and August 31. The letter reportedly welcomes the newly registered voters and encourages them to vote Republican. Roughly 30,000 of the letters are returned as undeliverable either because the intended recipients do not exist, have moved or died, or because the letters went to vacant houses or bogus addresses. Commenting on the large number of returned ballots, Bennett later tells the Columbus Dispatch, “It was an astounding number. The potential for these fraudulent registrations to produce fraudulent votes at the ballot box is very real.” David Sullivan, Ohio coordinator for the Democrats’ voter-protection project, disagrees, claiming that the Republicans’ mass mailing was “an unprecedented effort to throw tens of thousands of voters off of Ohio’s voting rolls.” [Columbus Dispatch, 10/23/2004]

In Ohio, Republican Party officials submit a list of 35,427 registered voters in 65 different counties whose mailing addresses, they say, are questionable to county election boards. 17,717 names on the list are of newly registered voters from Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, a Democratic stronghold. [Columbus Dispatch, 10/23/2004; New York Times, 10/23/2004]

County election boards in Ohio hold hearings to verify the voting addresses of roughly 30,000 recently registered voters whose eligibility to vote has been challenged by the Republican Party (see October 22, 2004). [WTOV 9 (Steubenville, OH), 10/27/2004; New York Times, 10/29/2004] According to Democratic officials, Republicans challenging voters at the hearings have little or no evidence to support their claims, other than that the voter’s registration card was returned “undeliverable” (see Between September 2004 and Mid-October 2004). In Summit County, elections officials reject all 976 challenges after the challengers fail to provide evidence. Similarly, in Warren County, officials throw out every one of the county’s 23 challenges. [Plain Dealer (Cleveland), 10/31/2004]

Judge Susan J. Dlott, of Federal District Court in Cincinnati, blocks the election boards of six Ohio counties—Franklin, Lawrence, Medina, Cuyahoga, Scioto, and Trumbull—from holding voter verification hearings (see October 23, 2004-October 29, 2004). [WTOV 9 (Steubenville, OH), 10/27/2004; New York Times, 10/29/2004]

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upholds Judge Susan Dlott’s October 28 ruling (see October 28, 2004) halting voter registration hearings (see October 23, 2004-October 29, 2004) in six Ohio counties. [New York Times, 10/29/2004]

Judge Susan Dlott issues an injunction halting challenge hearings (See October 23, 2004-October 29, 2004) in all of the state’s 88 counties. [New York Times, 10/29/2004]

Following Judge Susan Dlott’s ruling (see Afternoon, October 29, 2004), Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell instructs Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to recommend to federal judges that all challengers be barred from polling locations. [Columbus Dispatch, 10/31/2004; Cincinnati Enquirer, 11/1/2004] He reasons that poll workers hired and paid by the local election boards and supplied by the parties should be able to protect against voter fraud. He also says the challengers could generate confusion. [New York Times, 10/29/2004; Plain Dealer (Cleveland), 10/31/2004] But Petro refuses, saying that to do so would be a violation of Ohio law. “Neither the secretary of state nor I can negotiate away the legal rights of Ohio’s citizens,” Petro says in a statement. “Thus, I cannot submit to the federal courts the secretary’s unlawful proposal to ban all challengers for all parties, candidates or issues on Election Day.” Both officials are Republicans. [Plain Dealer (Cleveland), 10/31/2004; Columbus Dispatch, 10/31/2004; Cincinnati Enquirer, 11/1/2004]