I sincerely apologize for the OT, but AFAIK, I don't have anywhere else to post. Please rm/delete/ban/etc... as appropriate, I take full responsibility. This is a (potentially inappropriate) "CYA" (Covering my "A 55") posting, so please delete/rm/ban/etc. as necessary, if applicable.

https://semitwist.com/articles/article/view/my-state-is-illegally-preventing-me-from-voting-in-the-upcoming-2018-us-elections

I am a 36-year-old, legal resident of Willoughby, Lake County, Ohio, United States. I have been a legal resident of this county for most of my life, and a legal resident of this state for my entire life, since the day I was born (an event which is also documented to have occurred in Willoughby, Lake County, Ohio, United States). I have never been arrested (nor convicted) of a felony, nor a misdemeanor. Yesterday (September 8, 2018), I (along with most of the city) received the following letter in the mail:

http://semitwist.com/Ohio_Letter_Front.jpeg
http://semitwist.com/Ohio_Letter_Back.jpeg

Note six things:

1. As most United States citizens are implicitly aware (though the government assumes NO responsibility to ensure citizens are aware of this), to vote in a United States of America election and have the vote legally *count*, a United States citizen MUST vote on the exact day of elections, from the exact location determined to be the correct voting location for said citizen. This correct voting location is determined based on the citizen's address of residence (ie, the mailing address where they live). Or at least, this is my best understanding based on what I've been told as a natural born citizen of the United States. If there is any inaccuracy, it has never been communicated to me either directly, nor through any school I have ever attended, nor any mail I have ever received, nor anyone I have ever had any contact with.

2. The exception to #1 is by voting through an absentee ballot (which comes with its own additional set of regulations and conditions which will invalidate the ballot).

3. I have NOT received any other correspondence, besides this exact letter, which gives me any information regarding the correct location to vote nor how to find the correct location to vote.

4. The letter does NOT tell me where I am supposed to go to vote. Instead, it tells me to use the website "www.myohiovote.com" to find out where I am supposed to go to vote.

5. If you go to "www.myohiovote.com" (with JavaScript enabled), it redirects to "https://www.sos.state.oh.us/elections/voters/"

6. The current Ohio Secretary of State is Jon Husted (Republican): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Husted

Here's the clincher: On said website, "www.myohiovote.com" (ie, "https://www.sos.state.oh.us/elections/voters/"), via the one and only link to "Find My Polling Location", if you select my county (Lake County) and provide my address[1], the only response the [clearly badly-designed] website provides is "Based upon the data input, no records have been found. Please modify your search criteria."

[1] The official street name is precisely "Smugglers Cove" (That's correct, no apostrophe. And yes, the street name is unintentionally hilarious.) For privacy purposes, I obviously won't provide the exact house number, but given basic Internet map searching abilities, it shouldn't be difficult to come up with a valid four-digit house number beginning with "3".

I have already informed both the website and the Secretary of the State's office (via both email and via the website itself, via https://www.sos.state.oh.us/secretary-husted-office/contact-our-office/contact-us-agency/) of this problem. We'll see what, if anything, comes of it. I will update as I receive any information.

On Sunday, 9 September 2018 at 09:34:31 UTC, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) wrote:
> I sincerely apologize for the OT, but AFAIK, I don't have anywhere else to post. Please rm/delete/ban/etc... as appropriate, I take full responsibility. This is a (potentially inappropriate) "CYA" (Covering my "A 55") posting, so please delete/rm/ban/etc. as necessary, if applicable.

It works if you just write "smugglers" without "cv" for street name, but why are they making it so difficult? I just get a card with voting location in the mail.

Precinct and Polling Location:
293A/1 - WILLOUGHBY CITY 3A
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH
37940 EUCLID AV

If you're serious then why not request an absentee ballot?

Just out of curiosity, how does posting this info here help you in any way?

On Sunday, 9 September 2018 at 09:34:31 UTC, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) wrote:
> 1. As most United States citizens are implicitly aware (though the government assumes NO responsibility to ensure citizens are aware of this), to vote in a United States of America election and have the vote legally *count*, a United States citizen MUST vote on the exact day of elections, from the exact location determined to be the correct voting location for said citizen.

In Ohio, early voting begins 10 October:

https://www.sos.state.oh.us/elections/voters/voting-schedule/

Some areas have vote-by-mail as the default. This increases turnout for non-Presidential elections from abysmal to merely shameful. In these areas, you don't need to go to a specific location (though there are ballot drop-off locations if you don't want to trust your ballot in the mail).

On Sunday, 9 September 2018 at 14:27:45 UTC, Abdulhaq wrote:
> If you're serious then why not request an absentee ballot?
>
> Just out of curiosity, how does posting this info here help you in any way?

I was kind of wondering this too and in worst case a technical error as described is not really his state illegally preventing him from voting. Could be a simple mistake.

Contacting his state could probably give him what information he needs to know etc.

On 9/9/18 2:34 AM, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) wrote:
[snip]

I personally think you are overreacting.

Have you voted before? If so, just go to the place you did before. It's all I ever do. If you haven't, and go to the wrong place, I'm sure they will help you find the right place. In my state (MA), it's usually a school.

We have signs up in our town weeks before the election reminding of the upcoming vote, and where it is. I seriously doubt that the ONLY way people can figure out their polling place is via the Internet. Especially if said Internet site is implemented by the government, which invariably will have stupid problems. And if there is some grand conspiracy to prevent people from voting by not letting them know their polling place, it's a pretty poorly designed scheme. Just ask your neighbor where to vote, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

I recently tried to pay a traffic ticket online (first I've had in like 15 years), and there was a requirement to put in a code that the officer wrote down. The field was a drop-down and DIDN'T contain the code that the officer wrote. I called them, and they confirmed the code the officer wrote was correct. I tried editing the web page to include the code and submit, and it still failed.

I ended up having to mail it in.

-Steve