Right To Vote

[Towntalk]

I agree that saying that poll workers can not help voters who don't know which table to go to is a wrong that needs corrected. Suppose I move into a new area and need help? To say that I can't be directed to the right table is a clear violation of my right to vote. As to "early voting", this is stupid.

I vote absentee and have no problem filling out a form for an absentee ballot, and mailing it in.

This whole thing needs to be challanged in court.

[sfc_oliver]

While I can see that much of this is are cost cutting measures, there are a few parts I have questions or concerns about.

I don't understand why poll workers would not be permitted to direct anyone to the correct place to vote. That simply seems counter productive.

And I wonder why we need early voting and when that actually started.... My Mother worked the polls when I was a young lad, (in fact I have a certificate with her name on it for 25 years of that work) and it seems to me that people made a big deal out of election day and going to the polls. As I still do. My wife votes absentee, but I still head over to the polls and vote each election, of course for way too many years I wasn't here to do so.......

I can see the savings in not mailing out absentee ballots to people who didn't ask for them and I see the possibilities of fraud if the board does so.

So there is good and bad in this bill. I need answers about the early voting before deciding for myself if I would support the bill as written......

[Towntalk]

Dis missive plopped itself down in my mailbox dis mornin' an as a good citizen I pass it on fer what its worth, an da opinions is those of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), an doesn't necessairly one way or another reflect any view of mine. This dude, seems to enjoy fillin' my mail box wit his stuff on a weekly basis.

[iwasthere]

towntalk go onto the youngstown league of women voters website they have link to this hb194.

[Towntalk]

Is the State legislature trying to rob us of our right to vote?

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) held an official hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights at the Carl B. Stokes United States Federal Courthouse in Cleveland this week.

The hearing examined the affect of Ohio's new voting law, H.B. 194, which reduces the number of early voting days from 35 to 17, eliminates voting on the weekend before an election, removes the requirement that poll workers direct voters to their proper precinct, and prohibits county boards of elections from mailing unsolicited absentee ballots. H.B. 194 will be subject to a ballot repeal measure in November.

"H.B. 194 is a solution in search of a problem. It will repeal a number of common-sense measures that assist Ohioans in voting. For instance, this law eliminates early voting on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday prior to the election, the three busiest days of early voting. This reduction was made despite the fact that in 2008, up to 19 percent of Ohio voters cast their ballots on the weekend prior to the election," Sen. Brown said. "Not only that, but under H.B. 194, ballot workers will be prohibited from directing voters—who may be their friends, colleagues, or parishioners—to the correct polling location. Rather than protecting the right to vote, HB 194 is a brazen attempt to undermine it. This bill will disenfranchise more Ohioans of their right to vote, and that's wrong. Our citizens deserve better."

More than thirty states have new or pending changes to current voting laws. States seeking to change their laws have passed or proposed provisions that significantly reduce the number of early voting days, require voters to show restrictive forms of photo identification before voting and make it harder for volunteer organizations to register new voters. Supporters of these laws argue that they will reduce the risk of voter fraud. The overwhelming evidence, however, indicates that voter fraud is virtually non-existent and that these new laws will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of elderly, disabled, minority, young, rural, and low-income Americans to exercise their right to vote.