About EL@M
Election Law @ Moritz is a nonpartisan research, education, and outreach program conducted by faculty and staff of the The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. As a center of election law expertise, EL@M is a resource for lawyers, academics and educators, journalists, policymakers and other civic leaders, election administrators and citizens interested in election law issues. Formed in 2004, EL@M represents a collaboration among the many Moritz faculty members with expertise in election law and related fields.
About the EL@M Web Site
Welcome to the Election Law @ Moritz web site, your source of information about election laws, election litigation, and election news from around the nation. The focus of the EL@M web site is election administration - laws dealing with voter registration, voter ID, early and absentee voting, provisional balloting, poll workers and polling place procedures, recounts and election contests, and other related issues. Our mission is to help the public, lawyers, academics and educators, journalists, policymakers and other civic leaders, and election administrators better identify and understand issues confronting the world of election administration.
The web site includes sections devoted to developments in major pending cases; brief reports from the election law news wire; in-depth information and analysis; and expert commentary. Readers may search for information by topic or by state.
The EL@M web site is supported by the Election Law @ Moritz Program of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
Disclaimer: Election Law @ Moritz is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose any candidate, campaign, or party. Opinions expressed by individuals associated with Election Law @ Moritz, either on this web site or in connection with conferences or other activities undertaken by the program, represent solely the views of the individuals offering the opinions and not the program itself. Election Law @ Moritz institutionally does not represent any clients or participate in any litigation. Individuals affiliated with the program may in their own personal capacity participate in campaign or election activity, or engage in pro bono representation of clients other than partisan candidates or organizations.
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Commentary
Provisional Ballots, Consent Decrees, and the Balance Between the Federal and State Governments
Owen Wolfe
A recent mandamus action filed by the Ohio Senate President and House Speaker Pro Tempore to require the Ohio Secretary of State to rescind directives issued in response to a consent decree issued in a federal case dealing with counting provisional ballots raises questions about the mechanics of state election law, the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the relationship between federal and state courts, the law of consent decrees, and more. I have attempted in this article to grapple with these issues in a fair and unbiased manner. Given the complexity of this problem, however, these matters are open to a variety of interpretations and this is just one approach. I hope, however, that this article can provide a useful starting point for a discussion about the future of provisional voting in Ohio and in the nation at large.
This paper is a first look by a student member of the Election Law @ Moritz team and reflects one possible perspective on the issue. Stay tuned, as more analysis from the team will follow as the litigation develops. Owen Wolfe is affiliated with the Ohio Democratic Party and the Obama ’12 campaign, but is not in any way associated with any litigation team working on this case. EL@M has posted the document because we believe it has public value and adds to the discourse on this topic.
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