Husted has two new voter suppression tools
1. If any one makes a mistake on their Absentee ballot envelope (ID, name, etc.), they must come to the Board of Elections in person to correct it...even if they have gone to Florida for the winter, etc. ( http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/directives/2012/Dir2012-48.pdf ) The only exceptions are people with disabilities and overseas voters.
2. The &*#$@! absentee ballot request form that Husted decided to mail to every voter. TONS of people returned the form without understanding what it was (probably out of fear they might be purged from the voter registration rolls if they didn't return an official looking form). Those individuals must vote the ballot that was mailed to them (which they may not have understood they were requesting, may not be looking for, may have used to wrap the fish in, etc.). If they do not, they may vote a provisional ballot only on election day. If what I am seeing (as an observer) is typical, that number will be well outside of the margin between the candidates.
ETA: Please warn anyone you know about #2. People are coming in to vote and being told they requested an absentee ballot. They insist they didn't, but the pollworker can pull up their registration and cite the ballot number and the date it was mailed - when confronted with the reality that one was requested, some have said, "but I checked the box that I didn't want one." (There is no such box - and people were clearly confused. If you get a big official looking envelope from the Board of Elections - don't toss it - if you don't want to vote provisionally you must use that ballot (or take it to the BOE in advance of the election to have it canceled and vote in person). The only option on election day will be a provisional ballot - or carrying it in to the BOE directly.
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