Arrested Before Election Day? Ohio Will Bring Ballots to Jail

By Alan Johnson

If you end up in jail the weekend before the Nov. 4 election, take heart: You probably can still vote.
 

U.S. District Court Judge S. Arthur Spiegel ruled on Tuesday that registered Ohio voters who are jailed the weekend before an election will be allowed to cast an absentee ballot. Spiegel decided in a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Justice & Policy Center that he saw "no value in taking away this fundamental right, even for a short period of time."
 

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's office disagrees.
 

"Taxpayers are going to have to pay to have two employees of the board of election (one Republican and one Democrat) to deliver an absentee ballot to the jail," Husted spokesman Matt McClelland said. "We think that's a waste of money."
 

Spiegel said that because people who can afford to post bail can normally get out of jail to vote, preventing those from voting who cannot afford to post bail poses an "unconstitutional wealth-based voting restriction."
 

Attorneys for the center said at least 400 eligible Ohioans were unable to vote in 2012 because they were in jail the weekend before the election.
 

"The right to vote is one of the most fundamental and cherished rights in a free and democratic society," David Singleton, executive director of the center, said in a statement. "People arrested the weekend before the election are presumed to be innocent. If they are registered and otherwise qualified to participate in the process, voting is still their right."


The judge sided with Singleton's argument that because the state makes special provision for voters hospitalized before an election, the same accommodation should be made for people jailed but not convicted during that same time.

(c)2014 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)