Urgent Message about Ohio Voter Registration

Folks,
Recently, it has come to light that Kenneth Blackwell, Republican nominee for Governor of Ohio, Bush backer, and current Secretary of State, has recently (October 1st), purged voters from the newly created Ohio centralized voter registration database. Rumor has it though, that the purge may have only been run against those who did not vote "Republican" in the earlier primary election. Why would Blackwell do this? Well, he's currently running somewhere around 15% behind Ted Strickland in the polls for the Governor's race in Ohio. Many other Ohio Republicans are also running behind or are currently in very heated races. If only Republicans get to vote, then maybe only Republicans will be elected. This is a lot easier and safer to do than going around hacking voting machines in traditionally Democratic precincts. So, what can you do to check to see if you've been purged? You can check the central database on the Ohio Secretary of State website. I've already entered my information and found that I'm still registered (note: I am not registered as either Democrat or Republican; I did not vote in the primary election for that very reason). Here is the information straight from the Ohio Secretary of State's website:

Can I check my voter information online?
Yes. You may check your voter information at www.sos.state.oh.us. If you perform a Voter Information search and the information you registered is returned, then your voter registration form has been processed by your county board of elections. If your information is not returned in the search, you may want to contact your county board of elections to check on the status of your registration. You may also be able to check through your county board of elections’ Web site, although not all county boards have a link to the registration files.

Here is a direct link to the "voter information" link:

Ohio Secretary of State Voter Information Search Page

If you don't see any information returned about your voting history, you have been purged. Follow the directions on the website to have your voter registration information updated immediately. It is not too late. You need to do this very quickly though, as fixing this problem on election day will be very difficult and the lines will likely be very long at your county Board of Elections office. If you don't have this problem fixed, you may cast a "provisional ballot". If you do, you must provide valid proof of identification to your board of elections within ten (10) days in order for your vote to be counted.

As you may or may not know, if you are a voter in Ohio, you will be required to provide some form of identification for the first time in the upcoming November election. This may also cause headaches. This tactic will likely be used to target students who are legal residents of Ohio, but who have moved here from out of state. It could however be used to target anyone. Rumor has it that having as much as one number in your address differing from your voter registration information to your ID could be a problem. Bring several forms of ID with you to vote just in case (otherwise you will be relegated to returning for more ID or using the provisional ballot). Here is the officially accepted forms of ID, again from the Secretary of States website:

Acceptable forms of I.D. are:
Bank statements,
Utility bills,
Paychecks and
Any government-issued document showing your current address.
You may also use your Ohio driver's license or Ohio photo I.D. -- even if it shows a previous address.

Just beware of that "even if it shows a previous address" jargon...be sure to bring additional ID if you are in this situation!

Lastly I noticed this tidbit:

Voter Information Searches - Routine Maintenance
Please note: The Polling Place Look-up and the Voter Information Look-up will be undergoing maintenance on Friday, October 20 from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. At this time both of these look-up features will not be available. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I have worked for many, many years in IT (information technology) and I can assure you that any system that cost nearly six million dollars to implement probably has decent backup software and and an otherwise robust database system. Why would this matter? Because during "routine maintenance" (including backups), databases still allow information look-ups. However running something like a massive query or data purge operation would be better performed with the database "offline". So...you might just want to check your info on this site again on October 21st.
If anyone has any further information about the "routine maintenance", I would be most interested.

-HBH