Ohio: State high court asked to intervene in local judge race

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A southwest Ohio county elections board and the Republican candidate in a judicial election on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the counting of disputed ballots in the race. A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January ruled that provisional ballots improperly cast because of poll worker error should be counted in a Hamilton County race for a juvenile court judgeship that has been disputed since November. Counting the disputed ballots, many of which were in Democratic precincts, could swing the election to Democratic candidate Tracie Hunter. Republican candidate John Williams leads Hunter by 23 votes in the count of 230,000 votes cast. Williams and the Hamilton County Board of Elections in Cincinnati asked the Supreme Court justices for a court order that would remain in effect at least until the justices decide whether to hear the appeal of the 6th Circuit Court ruling. Hunter has until Friday to respond, the Supreme Court said. Hunter's attorney, Jennifer Branch, said they will file a response opposing the motion and said "it's time we get a resolution." Hunter's attorneys had argued that the government must investigate any mistake that could disenfranchise voters, and U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott in November ordered the board to investigate whether poll worker error contributed to the rejection of ballots. She later said about 150 disputed ballots should be counted. The ballots were excluded because they were cast at wrong precincts, but the judge said they should be counted because they apparently were miscast due to poll worker error. Lawyers for Williams and the board contested Dlott's ruling, saying results shouldn't be delayed indefinitely by investigations into every potential polling place error. The board counted some ballots miscast because of poll worker error at one polling place while rejecting others that may have been miscast at other polling places for the same reason, the 6th Circuit Court said. The judges said that violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and returned the case to Dlott for further argument on whether there was enough evidence of poll worker error to count some disputed ballots. Published: Wed, Apr 13, 2011