Last year, many Ohio counties mailed out unsolicited absentee-ballot applications to registered voters, attempting to increase early voting and therefore cut down on long lines at the polls on Election Day. But new Ohio Secretary of State John Husted issued a directive (PDF) in August prohibiting all county boards of elections from mailing unsolicited applications this year.

Last November, of the nearly 4 million votes cast in the election, over 1 million were mailed absentee ballots.

Husted said that, in the interest of uniformity of treatment, it would be unfair to allow counties with sufficient funds to give their residents greater access to the polls than counties that csn’t afford the cost of sending out the applications.

“To give voters in one county greater access than voters in another county is, on its face, unfair and undermines confidence in our elections system,” he wrote in a release accompanying the directive.

“Uniformity in the way in which Ohio’s elections are administered is of the utmost importance, which is why Ohio must have a standardized approach to administering elections that ensures equal access for all voters.”

The decision, however, caused some county administrators to call foul.  Cuyahoga County Executive Edward FitzGerald posted a scathing response on Facebook, taking shots at Husted, Gov. John Kasich and Ohio’s history of inconsistent election policies:

“A few quick facts: First, the money for mailing these ballots has been in the budget since 2010, and no additional funds will be spent,” he wrote of his county.  “Second, this program was instituted in larger counties across Ohio after the fiasco at the polls in 2004, which resulted in totally unacceptable delays and long lines at the polls, wherein some people lost their right to vote.”

FitzGerald observed nearly half of voters in Cuyahoga County voted by mail in 2010, and pointed out that the League of Women Voters consider the mailings a “recognized best practice.”

“The state’s attempt in this matter, if it continues, will once again make Ohio known for attempts at voter suppression,” he said.

After meeting with FitzGerald, Husted issued another release detailing his plan: His directive for 2011 would remain in effect, but efforts for the 2012 election would get funds from the Help America Vote Act, designed to allow states to use federal money to ensure fair access to the polls.

The agreement’s provisions:

* Husted has agreed to have his office send an application to vote by mail to voters in all 88 Ohio counties in advance of next year’s presidential election.
* In return, FitzGerald will freeze a county plan to send all active voters in Cuyahoga County an application to vote by mail this fall. The mailing will be replaced by an public outreach effort to make sure Cuyahoga County voters understand how to vote early this fall.

FitzGerald commended the plan, calling it “one of the largest steps forward in access to the ballot in years,” according to a release, but a FitzGerald spokesman, John Kohlstrand, said it was important to understand that it was “a compromise; it was give-and-take.”

“We wanted to send ballots to everyone in the county,” he said.  “And we used a lot of resources to that effect.”

Kohlstrand added that the agreement was reached in lieu of a lengthy court case, which could have caused voters even more confusion.

Husted’s spokesperson, Matthew McClellan, said the secretary wasn’t worried about the possibility of a sharply decreased turnout or voter confusion in 2011.

“Early voting numbers are higher [than last year’s] in Franklin County,” he said of the county where the state’s capital, Columbus, is located.  “Look at what’s on the ballot: State Issue 2.

“You have a high concentration of government workers in Franklin County, so it really just depends,” he said, referring to unionized public workers energized by the movement to repeal SB5.

In New Hampshire, for instance, seniors backed GOP Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte over her Democratic challenger by 33 points. In the narrow Illinois Senate contest, Republican Mark Kirk won older voters by 22 points. And In Delaware, they were the only age group to back tea party favorite Christine O’Donnell, by an 11-point margin.

“I’ve been saying since August 2009, that there was a tsunami — in this case a senior citizen tsunami — headed towards Capitol Hill,” said Jim Martin, chairman of the 60 Plus Association, a conservative campaign group targeted toward older voters. “That tsunami came ashore.”

The 60 Plus Association, it should be noted, played a key role, along with groups like American Crossroads, in drumming up fears among the elderly about the health care reform bill’s efforts to fight the rising cost of Medicare — a cause that Republicans had long championed but now found opportune to decry. Billing itself a conservative alternative to the AARP, the 60 Plus Association served in many ways as an extension of the American Crossroads-led network of shadow GOP organizations devoted to electing Republicans last election cycle. Carl Forti, a veteran Republican operative and the political director of American Crossroads, also handled the PR and media profile of the 60 Plus group, which spent nearly $6 million dollars in independent expenditures attacking House Democrats who voted for health care reform.

Combine the swing among seniors with the fact that young people largely stayed home from the polls last Tuesday, and the landslide seem less like a shift in the national opinion and more like the product of simple demographic mathematics. Here’s a voter turnout graph Matt Yglesias provided last week, which speaks to this point:

For the first time since 1964, Virginia is in play in a presidential election. Many residents are surprised to see Virginia shaded blue on some electoral maps. The state will indeed make history if it favors Sen. Barack Obama. But in my mind, Virginia is already making history.

Polls show Obama leading, on average, by about 4.4 percent. This is monumental because the first African-American presidential candidate might take the state and because, more important, he’s so close to actually pulling it off.

Slavery, segregation and racial hatred clouds Virginia’s past. In some parts of the state, racial hatred is still alive — a reality we’ve been forced to face this election season. But another reality has also surfaced: Virginians have looked beyond skin color to learn about the candidates and what they stand for. In doing so, they’ve become so energized about the issues that they are turning out in record numbers to vote.

White that’s exciting, it’s also worrisome. High turnout and wet weather have caused problems at polling places throughout the state.

Twenty-five percent of Virginia’s polling places use optical scanning machines. There are reports that some are acting up because paper ballots were wet and the machines couldn’t read them. There have been voting-machine malfunctions in Louisa, Petersburg and Chesterfield counties, as well as elsewhere. In Richmond and Virginia Beach, precincts opened late. Long lines in Richmond and its suburbs have reportedly created some voting problems.

Hopefully, most of these problems will get sorted out, and all registered Virginians who haven’t already voted will make it to the polls by 7 p.m. Any voters encountering problems can report them to the CNN Voter Hotline at 1-877-462-6608.

No matter the outcome, this election is groundbreaking for Virginia. My state may still have a long way to go — but it’s on the right track.