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Ohio Judge rules that the Homeless can vote. (993 hits)

I have blogged on this issue before, regarding the rights of the homeless to vote. The Judge's ruling now makes the issue of foreclosed homes and residency moot.

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Ohio homeless must be allowed to vote, federal judge says
Posted by Terry Oblander/Plain Dealer Reporter October 28, 2008 14:23PM
Categories: Election, Open, Real Time News
Homeless people cannot be denied the right to vote because the grate they sleep on doesn't have an address, a federal magistrate has ruled.

Edmund Sargus, a U.S. District Court judge for southern Ohio, on Monday ordered
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner not to reject provisional ballots that fail to list a building address on a provisional voting envelope.

Sargus also ordered Brunner not to reject provisional ballots because of poll worker error, "including failing to sign a provisional envelope."

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless had asked the court for a preliminary injunction dealing with issues affecting the homeless.

Cleveland attorney Subodh Chandra, who represents the coalition, told the court that a Cuyahoga County Board of Elections training and compliance officer said in an Oct. 21 deposition that his board did not plan to count ballots for homeless people who could not list a home address.