CLEVELAND -- A ruling by the Ohio secretary of state may put tens of thousands of voters' registrations into question.

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Voter Registration Forms

Kenneth Blackwell has directed county boards of election to strictly follow Ohio law, which states that registration cards are permanent state record and must be printed on thick 80-pound stock paper, NewsChannel5 reported.

The problem is, the board of elections Web site encourages voters to print a form on regular paper and mail it in.

And Friday's Plain Dealer featured lighter than required cards.

Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Director Michael Vu said they will count all of the voter registration cards.

“We've received a special dispensation in regards to accepting those registration forms,” Vu said.

Many elections officials in other counties plan to just ignore the rule, saying federal election law guarantees the right to vote regardless of mistakes on voter forms.

Blackwell's office said the order was meant to prevent lightweight cards from being shredded by postal equipment. Blackwell said boards should accept all forms and register voters, then send voters the proper card -- printed by the county board -- to fill out for the permanent record.

"We're not the paperweight police, we're not going to physically inspect every voter registration form at the boards of elections," Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

It's not the only confusion that a Blackwell statement has caused. Democrats on Monday sued Blackwell over his order requiring election boards to send voters who show up at the wrong polling place on Election Day to the proper area rather than letting them cast a ballot.