OHIO ELECTION Another challenge at polls

This is an unprecedented move, Mahoning Valley election officials say.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
With so much riding on the outcome of the presidential election in Ohio, Republicans and Democrats aren't taking any chances.
For the first time in at least recent history, both parties will have challengers at each polling place in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. There will be challengers at Columbiana County polling places, but in much smaller numbers.
The challengers are permitted to question the eligibility of a voter, before issuance of a ballot, and their right to vote based on the person's citizenship, age, registration and residency.
New registrants
Also a first for this election is a decision by the Ohio Republican Party to have a local Republican file official challenges against new registrants or those who moved, and had their registration notification returned as undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service.
"We've never had prechallenges to eligibility in at least 25 years, but probably longer than that," said Rokey Suleman, Trumbull County elections board deputy director.
Republicans in 65 counties, on behalf of the state party, filed challenges to about 35,000 registrants in Ohio for undeliverable mail. After a person registers to vote, county boards of elections send them notifications in the mail.
The problem is the registration confirmation didn't make it to the people being challenged, and the letter on the challenge hearings will probably also be undeliverable, Suleman said.
State law requires each county with a prechallenge to send notification to the registrants in question at least three days before a hearing is held. The hearing must be held no later than Sunday.
At the hearings, the county election boards can choose to disqualify registrants, or opt to leave that decision to poll workers if the person in question shows up to vote, said Michael Sciortino, Mahoning County Board of Elections director, and president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials. Poll workers would be required to ask the voter in question if they live at an address in the precinct, and sign a statement to back up the claim, he said.
Trumbull, Mahoning
Trumbull County received 449 challenges to the validity of registered voters, Suleman said. He said today he didn't know when the letters would be mailed, but it probably would be Thursday and the hearing held on Sunday.
Mahoning received 115 challenges, and will hold a hearing at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at its elections office at the South Side Annex in Youngstown. Columbiana received 49 challenges and will hold a hearing at 9 a.m. Friday at the juvenile court center.
In a statement, Ohio Republican Chairman Robert Bennett said the 35,000 challenges were filed to "protect the integrity of Ohio's election process," and "to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised by fraud in this election."
Myron Marlin, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Voter Protection Program, said Democrats didn't file any challenges "because we don't want to stand in the way of people's ability to vote. Their eligibility should be decided by boards of elections."
Democrats and Republicans in Mahoning and Trumbull filed the necessary paperwork to have a challenger in each voting precinct in the counties; 312 in Mahoning and 274 in Trumbull.
The Mahoning Democratic Party traditionally files paperwork to have challengers -- typically precinct committee members -- at the polls. But, Sciortino said, they never show up. It will be different this time, he said.
There hasn't been a polling place challenger in Trumbull or Columbiana in recent memories, officials there said.
Because of concerns about too many people in polling places, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell issued an edict this morning, said James Lee, his spokesman.
The political parties will be permitted to have a challenger at each polling place, and not each precinct, Lee said. Some polling places encompass more than one precinct.
That reduces the number of challengers each party can have from 312 to 158 in Mahoning, and from 274 to 136 in Trumbull.
The change won't affect Columbiana County, which has 103 precincts and 86 polling places. Columbiana Republicans submitted the names of only three people and Democrats about 20 to serve as challengers, and they will travel to the various polling places.