Ohio Court Rules for McCain-Palin on Absentee Ballots

By GottaLaff

Back story here. I hate to burst our bubble, even a little bit but:

The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that disputed absentee ballot applications mailed to state voters by the McCain-Palin campaign should be accepted by local elections officials and directed State Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to reverse her position that boards reject them. [...]

The applications at issue in Thursday's case contain a checkbox that appears on the forms -- in addition to a signature line -- for voters to state that they are qualified to vote and request an absentee ballot. The McCain camp mailed 1 million of the forms in Ohio.

In September, Brunner advised county elections boards to reject the forms if the box was not checked, even if the application had been signed, saying that without a checkmark a voter's intent was unclear. More than 3,500 ballots already had been rejected for that reason by boards, the court determined.

The court rejected Brunner's interpretation and also said that an unchecked box did not provide evidence of voter fraud. Rejecting ballots solely over the lack of a checkmark, the court wrote, served "no vital purpose or public interest."

The court was obliged to avoid "unduly technical interpretations" of election law, its order stated.

Brunner said she was "pleased" the court clarified what she called a set of "complex applications ruled" passed by the state legislature. "I will gladly follow the high court's decision," she said.

The McCain campaign cheered the ruling. "Today's decision is a win for the tens of thousands of voters whose absentee ballots were threatened as a result of Secretary of State Brunner's decision to add confusion to what should be an honest and open election process. These qualified voters are now assured that they will not be disenfranchised by Secretary Brunner's partisan attempt to keep John McCain's supporters from casting absentee ballots," said Jon Seaton, McCain-Palin Regional Campaign Manager for Seaton, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

You win some, you lose some.