Chabot should have been allowed to vote after all

In most southwest Ohio counties, most of the problems voters encountered at the polls had to do with the new voter ID system – specifically, voters showing up with driver’s licenses that did not reflect their current voting address and being sent home to find another form of identification.

As it turns out, they should not have been turned away.

One of the persons caught in that this morning was a United States congressman.

Rep. Steve Chabot, locked in a battle with Democrat John Cranley that the national pundits are calling a toss-up, showed up at his polling place in Westwood’s Precinct 26A at 9:30 a.m.

Election workers, of course, recognized him, but, because his driver’s license lists his business address, they sent him home. Ten minutes later, Chabot returned with a bank statement and voted.

He should have been allowed to vote the first time, said Tim Burke, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections.

“There was a lot of confusion on the part of both voters and poll workers on voter ID,’’ Burke said.

Burke said that shortly after noon the Ohio secretary of state’s office, after receiving widespread reports of the same confusion about drivers’ license addresses all over the state, issued a directive to the board of elections to allow voters who presented driver’s licenses that did not contain their current addresses to vote. Poll workers were instructed to write down the last four digits of the voter’s driver license number.

“We’ve been trying to get the word out to poll workers all afternoon,’’ Burke said.