Reports have surfaced that the McCain campaign printed absentee ballot application forms containing an
extra check box that certified that the respondent was an eligible voter. By law, if that statement appears, and is NOT checked, the respondent is admitting that they are not eligible to vote, and the ballot application must be rejected. Ohio Secretary of State is hopping mad, and is requiring that county Boards of Election contact everyone with an invalid application and inform them of the problem.
The reports say that the McCain campaign mailed out 1 MILLION of these alternate applications, and about 1 in 3 are coming back invalid. I talked to a Republican co-worker, and he indicated that he had received the application from the McCain campaign - and couldn't remember if he checked the box.
The problem is, the McCain campaign didn't send them to just Republicans. They're making these tricky forms available to hundreds of thousands of voters in heavily Democratic districts - resulting in "caging", with more Democrats losing out on the chance to vote than republicans.
Brunner tried to find a way to make the applications valid, but failed. The law is narrow, but clear - if the statement is on the application, and has a check box, it MUST be checked.
If you think you might have used this ballot, get a real one from the
Secretary of State.
