By Dan Horn
Enquirer staff writer

As many as 21,000 convicted felons in Ohio are deprived of the right to vote each year because of bad advice from elections officials, a federal lawsuit claimed Tuesday.

An advocacy group for former prison inmates filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati as part of a campaign to protect the rights of ex-convicts who mistakenly think that they are not permitted to vote on Election Day.

The lawsuit accuses state and county elections officials of telling felons that they must complete parole or fill out unnecessary paperwork before registering to vote in Ohio.

Under Ohio law, felons are allowed to vote as long as they are no longer in prison.

Those votes, the lawsuit claims, could be crucial this year if the presidential election is close.

"Given that Ohio is a battleground state, this election could very well turn on the vote of ex-offenders," said David Singleton, executive director of the Prison Reform Advocacy Center, the Cincinnati-based group that filed the lawsuit.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order elections officials by Oct. 4 to comply with the law and demands that they send a letter to all felons in Ohio explaining their voting rights. Voters must register a month before an election.

Although the rights of ex-convicts are an issue in Ohio, rules on voting vary from state to state.

Kentucky and several other states permanently bar felons from voting, even after they are freed from prison.

Elections officials acknowledge mistakes sometimes occur when felons register to vote, but they say those errors are rare and unintentional.

Sometimes, they say, the registration of felons is delayed because it takes time to verify they are no longer in prison.

"We feel we are in accordance with the law," said Carlo Loparo, spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. "We are committed to making sure that all individuals eligible to vote are able to do so without impediment."

But according to the lawsuit, the boards of elections in all 88 Ohio counties routinely give out bad advice when felons call to ask about registering to vote.

Singleton said testers working on behalf of his group called the board of elections in each county to seek advice about registration. And in every county, he said, officials inaccurately stated that felons must register in person, must wait until they complete parole or must fill out special forms to restore their voting rights.

In Hamilton County, the suit claims, registration forms from felons were rejected if they were mailed in without attached "documentation restoring voting rights."

Hamilton County officials say they recently discontinued that practice after reviewing the findings of the advocacy group's study. Now, they say, all registration applications are processed unless something on the application suggests the person is still in prison - such as a return address from a prison.

"Our board and staff recognize that a convicted felon who has served his or her time is entitled to register to vote," said Tim Burke, the county's Democratic Party chairman and a member of the Board of Elections.

Michael Barrett, a board member and the Republican Party chairman, said he doubts estimates that place the number of registered felons well into the thousands.

"I would be shocked if it was a large group of people," Barrett said.