Bogus voting, it seems, is not a concern only in the world's largest democracy, but in the oldest one as well.
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A federal appeals court early on Tuesday cleared the way for both Republicans and Democrats to send 'voter challengers' to each polling precinct in Ohio to challenge voters' identities in case of doubts.
The legal battle started after GOP planned to send monitors to polling stations to challenge suspect voters on the spot. The GOP has contended the party wanted to send such monitors because of concerns about fraud. They said they planned to check on names of people who have died recently and tally names with the lists of absentee ballots.
The Democrats went to court saying that posting such challengers would intimidate voters and infringe on the rights of people to vote freely.
A black Cincinnati couple filed a suit claiming the GOP wanted to unfairly target minority neighbourhoods.
In rulings in separate cases two judges barred political parties from sending monitors to challenge suspect voters throughout Ohio saying that election officials were competent to handle such disputes.
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But the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decisions allowing each party to send one 'Election Day Challenger' to voting places.
News agencies quoted 6th Circuit Court judges as saying that while it is in the public interest that registered voters cast ballots freely, there is also strong public interest in allowing legitimate statutory processes to operate to preclude voting by those whoa re not entitled to.
Under state law votes may be challenged on their citizenship, age or residency. Challengers would confront anyone whose signature does not match the one on the poll book or if someone is recognised by the challenger to be from out of that precinct.
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