Can Ted Strickland vote in his hometown, and where does he really live?
An East Liverpool woman, Jacquelyn Long, has filed a complaint with the Columbiana County Board of Elections maintaining Ted and Frances Strickland are not residents of the county for voting purposes. Board of elections records say he is registered to vote in Lisbon, Columbiana County.
The local Board of Elections met Thursday and a motion to dismiss the complaint resulted in a tie vote with the two Democrats voting in favor of the motion and the two Republicans opposed.
Lois Gall, director of the board, said in an interview today that she was preparing a packet of materials to send to Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, Democrat Ted Strickland's Republican opponent for Ohio governor. The Secretary of State's office has the authority to break the tie.
The Secretary of State always breaks county Boards of Elections' ties. As the boards are always made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, ties are not unusual.
Blackwell's campaign spokesman, Carlo LoParo, declined comment today, referring The Enquirer to the Secretary of State's office for comment on the complaint.
Strickland spokesman, Keith Dailey, said, "Of course Ted's registered to vote in Columbiana C0unty. He's been registered ever since he moved there in 2003. This question has never been raised before and it's clearly frivolous.
"It's a desperate attempt by partisans for partisan gain. Most fair-minded Ohioans know that Ken Blackwell is in no position to break this tie," Dailey said.
At the Secretary of State's office, spokesman James Lee said that he would have no comment until he received the complaint from the Columbiana board. The board has 10 days to give the secretary the complaint and ask that his office break the tie.
Steve Huefner, an elections law attorney at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State, said that two issues are really in question:
1. May the Stricklands vote in Columbiana County?
2. May Ted Strickland hold political office in Ohio?
"The simple fact that they have two residences in Ohio in not unusual," Huefner said. "The true question is at which residence did he intend to vote?"
Huefner also could not make further comment until he sees the complaint.
13 Comments:
at 1:52 PM, October 13, 2006 
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at 3:01 PM, October 13, 2006 
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at 3:30 PM, October 13, 2006 
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at 3:39 PM, October 13, 2006 
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at 5:28 PM, October 13, 2006 
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at 5:58 PM, October 13, 2006 
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at 10:21 PM, October 13, 2006 
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at 11:59 PM, October 13, 2006 
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at 12:32 AM, October 14, 2006 
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at 12:35 AM, October 14, 2006 
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at 10:16 AM, October 14, 2006 
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at 10:10 PM, October 14, 2006 
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at 6:08 PM, October 15, 2006 
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Post a Comment*http://www.buckeyestateblog.com/after_two_months_republican_bloggers_recycle_discredited_story_about_stricklands_voting_residence_as_news
-snip
WARNING: BORING LEGAL CONTENT AHEAD
Matt then asserts, with no legal authority, that Strickland is guilty either of voting fraud or tax fraud simply because Strickland applied for a tax credit for the condo as an owner-occupied home. Dole asserts that the form shows that the Franklin County property is Strickland's primary residence. However, Ohio election law doesn't require you to vote from your "primary residence." In fact, there's nothing in the Ohio Revised Code that comes anywhere near the term "primary residence" for voting purposes.
Also, apparently Matt doesn't know the definition of "residence," or else he'd know that a person can have only one domicile, but can have more than one residence.
So for the purposes of the uneducated, here's the difference between the two:
Residence: Bodily presence as an inhabitant in a given place.
Domicile: Bodily presence as an inhabitant in a given place with the intention of staying permanently. [Source: Black's Law Dictionary, 7th ed.]
The Ohio Revised Code provision that lays out the standard for voting residency, R.C. 3503.02, states that a residence is a person's habitation which is fixed and, whenever the person is absent, has the intention of returning. Note, it doesn't say the place where the person intends to permanently live. The Stricklands said they bought their Columbus condo to have a place to stay whenever they were traveling outside of the district while he was in Congress. Since Strickland will not be in Congress much longer, I'd say his stays in Columbus is pretty temporary. Also, as the article above points out, Strickland does return to the Lisbon apartment quite often. Statute satisifed.
In State, ex rel. Lakes v. Young, (1954), 161 Ohio St. 341, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a candidate, whose wife and child lived in Dayton, received mail in Dayton, and a registered letter address to his voting address could not be delivered, and the fact that other people were currently renting his voting residence, was not sufficient to find that candidate was not eligible to run for office in the precinct where he was registered to vote. The candidate ate, slept, and received visits from his wife within the precinct, and planned to return to the premises after the current tenants moved out. In that case, the Ohio Supreme Court overturned a Board of Elections decision to remove the candidate from the ballot.
MORE AT LINK ABOVE
An excellant example of why the SOS should not decide election issues when they are running for ofice for running a campaign for wRong wingnut wachos, PERIOD !
HAD ENOUGH, VOTE DEMOCRAT 2006 !
There is an argument that the statute is unconstitutional and violates equal protection ?
Where does a homeless person vote ?
Are they denied the right to vote ?
Blackwell shouldn't make too big a deal out of this. His buddy McEwen illegally voted in Ohio for years.
Strickland's a democrat. I imagine he is guilty of both tax and voter fraud. Aren't they all?
Anonymous 5:28 PM must be more than just a little confused; Republicans are the greedy tax cheats that steal elections.
It will be interesting to see what Uncle Ken does, ruling against Strickland is the only prayer he has to win!
Once more Ohio is singled out for ridicule because of the failure of Ken Blackwell.
Also troublesome was a lack of electronic voting policies that could make voting lines in the upcoming midterm contest even longer than those in 2004, according to the survey.
Such delays especially affected Ohio, where people waited hours because of problems with computerized voting.
The study found that the problems with electronic voting were not just malfunctioning machines, but also the lack of available machines. ''There were long lines because there were inequitably distributed voting machines,'' Wang said. Since 2004, most states have only vague guidelines. Florida and Washington, for example, have no formula for determining the number of voting machines in each precinct, the study said.
After the 2004 debacle in Ohio, a law was passed mandating one machine for every 175 registered voters. But it is not enforceable until 2013.
Blackwell is a miserable failure.
Isn't it Kenny and Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Chairman/State Republican Chairman Bob Bennett who keep telling us Ohio has a "bi-partisan" system of Elections. B.S. Ohio needs an entirely new set of election laws including making sure elections can't get stolen. This is a perfect example of how the system Doesn't work. Remember, it's Kenny who wouldn't release his tax returns by the way.
someone should bring a lawsuit or criminal charge. ENOUGH of Ohio's corrupt election system!!!!!!!!!!
Doesn't Blackwell vote in Cincinnati? Doesn't Kenny have a condo in Hilliard. Time to investigate his multiple residences....
Lets see, where does bouncing Bob McEwen really live.
http://onlinedocs.andersonpublishing.com/oh/lpExt.dll/PORC/16b26/16f0d/16f28?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm&2.0#JD_351305
Protests against the candidacy of any person filing a declaration of candidacy for party nomination or for election to an office or position, as provided in this section, may be filed by any qualified elector who is a member of the same political party as the candidate and who is eligible to vote at the primary election for the candidate whose declaration of candidacy the elector objects to, or by the controlling committee of that political party. The protest shall be in writing, and shall be filed not later than four p.m. of the sixty-fourth day before the day of the primary election, or if the primary election is a presidential primary election, not later than four p.m. of the forty-ninth day before the day of the presidential primary election.
Regrettably, it is a fact: Ohio is now officially a banana republic. How absurd can things get. It was bad enough with the 4% approval Taft governorship, the joke election in 2004, and the corruption galore.
Now Ohio has allowed one of the most controversial and some say corrupt political operatives, Blackwell, to be in a position to, SAY WHAT!, eliminate his competitor from the governors race.
The immediate reaction of an honest man in this situation would be, "Obviously I'm biased so I'm sending this to a three judge panel" or something along those lines.
However, Blackwell and the demonstrably corrupt Ohio Republican Party "are thinking about."
Ohio is a great state filled with terrific people BUT the leadership there stinks and the movers and shakers who should create an honest environment do nothing. Sad day for Ohio, sad day for America.
Michael Collins
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