CommentarySubodh Chandra [plaintiffs attorney, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, et al. v. Blackwell]: "The consent order we won Thursday against Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell won back the right to vote for many otherwise eligible Ohioans–including college students, the elderly, and homeless people. Those people were not going to be able to vote because they did not have the forms of identification that the statute enumerates. But they do have the last four digits of their social-security number, and those that do will be able to vote provisionally.
The consent order also ensures those provisional votes, and many others that were in limbo, are counted. For example, thousands of absentee ballots that were in question because county boards of elections were confusedly and inconsistently applying the voter-ID requirements (thus disenfranchising Ohioans subjected to the most restrictive approaches) will be counted.
Who is the type of Ohioan whose right to vote was saved by this consent order? Pamela Denton. She's a graduate of Spelman College. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Her cousin was one of the girls killed in the bombing outside the Birmingham Church. Pamela felt the blast that killed her cousin. Voting is important to her. She has voted almost every year since she turned 18. It is a critical part of carrying on the legacy of her parents and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Ms. Denton is homeless. She has none of the forms of identification in the statutes. She has only her social-security number. Last week, she would not have been able to vote on election day. Now she will be able to.
After it became apparent that we had an agreement in principle with the other side in Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, et al. v. Blackwell, Ms. Denton and I embraced. She was too overcome with emotion to speak. But her presence in the courtroom for 13 hours today–her vigil for her rights–should inspire us all. I believe it was the decisive factor in a broader victory than seemed possible a few days earlier when the Sixth Circuit reversed the temporary restraining order we had obtained enjoining the law."
