Yes, that's right: If you're a poll worker in Ohio, you can demand that any voter--any legally registered voter, mind you--produce proof of naturalized citizenship or be forced to file a provisional ballot and then, well, produce proof of naturalized citizenship. If the voter doesn't show up with a birth certificate or immigration papers within ten days, the vote is declared null and void. The ACLU writes:
According to legal papers filed by the groups today, allowing poll workers to challenge someone’s ability to vote based on where they were born will open the door to ethnic and racial profiling and will almost certainly discourage voting by racial minorities and other immigrant groups.Well, of course it will. Otherwise, what possible purpose could the legislation serve? Citizenship is already verified at the voter registration phase.
The ACLU has filed a suit jointly with the Asian-American Bar Association, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and other groups in an attempt to get the law struck down. I'll continue to follow this situation as it develops.
