We are so screwed, cont.

This is via CNN:

Cincinnati (AP, October 24) - A federal appeals court ruled Saturday that provisional ballots Ohio voters cast outside their own precincts should not be counted, throwing out a lower-court decision that said such ballots are valid as long as they are cast in the correct county.

The ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supports an order issued by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell[, a Republican].

This comes a day after the Columbus Dispatch covered confirmed reports of people receiving phone calls falsely telling them their precinct had been changed, reports of which Blackwell's office was well aware.

U.S. District Judge James Carr on Oct. 14 blocked Blackwell's directive, ruling that Ohio voters who show up at the wrong polling place still can cast ballots as long as they are in the county where they are registered. Blackwell appealed to the 6th Circuit.

Upon winning at Circuit level, Blackwell's office reacted as we would have expected, vilifying "frivolous lawsuits filed by the Ohio Democratic Party and its allies [which] needlessly wasted the valuable time of election officials." The Democrats, too, responded in the way we have come to expect: They gave up.

Ohio Democrats on Saturday night decided not to file an appeal in the case, one of the first major tests of how such ballots will be handled in a close election. ...

"To avoid any confusion, we are not going to appeal this ruling," David Sullivan, voter protection coordinator for the Ohio Democratic Party, said in a statement. "That way we can ensure that voters and election officials understand that voters must be in the proper polling place before casting a vote."

There is, of course, no such risk of "confusion" unless you assume that people would knowingly show up at the wrong precinct. The inclusion of "election officials" in the statement as if they were the ones being instructed is a real hoot.

By the way, what do you think are the chances that if Blackwell has lost that his office would decline to pursue it further to avoid "confusion?"