‘Block the Vote’ in Ohio

June 9, 2006

Whether you believe he was involved in massive electoral [tag]fraud[/tag] in 2004 or not, Ohio Secretary of State Ken [tag]Blackwell[/tag] (R) is clearly playing fast and loose in 2006.

The latest sign that [tag]Republicans[/tag] have an election-year strategy to shut down [tag]voter registration[/tag] [tag]drives[/tag] comes from [tag]Ohio[/tag]. As the state gears up for a very competitive election season this fall, its secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, has put in place “emergency” regulations that could hit voter registration workers with criminal penalties for perfectly legitimate registration practices. The rules are so draconian they could shut down registration drives in Ohio. […]

Throughout American history both parties have shown a willingness to try to use election law to get results they might otherwise not win at the polls. But right now it is clearly the Republicans who believe they have an interest in keeping the voter base small. Mr. Blackwell and other politicians who insist on making it harder to vote never say, of course, that they are worried that get-out-the-vote drives will bring too many poor and minority voters into the system. They say that they want to reduce fraud. However, there is virtually no evidence that registration drives are leading to fraud at the polls.

But there is one clear way that Ohio’s election system is corrupt. Decisions about who can vote are being made by a [tag]candidate[/tag] for [tag]governor[/tag].

That, in and of itself, is rather bizarre. Even if we put aside Blackwell’s recent lapses, Ohio is looking at a scenario in which one of its gubernatorial candidates is also responsible for overseeing the state’s election process. The circumstances have prompted a number of Ohio Dems to call on Blackwell to step aside from “overseeing his own [tag]election[/tag].”

A spokesperson for the Blackwell campaign responded, “Their contentions are absurd. Someone else should administer the election? How can they even stand up there with any credibility and talk about that stuff?””

Funny, I was thinking the same thing about Blackwell’s position on the same issue.

June 9, 2006 at 11:24 am

Really, what is there to say. The spokesperson is an idiot and Blackwell is a crook.

This is just too amazing. I love the fact that the party of values and the party of personal responsibility, the party of less government interference in the lives of the people, thinks it is OK for Blackwell to preside over his own election. If Ohioans support Blackwell and he wins election I move we remove Ohio from the Union and replace them with American Samoa, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands.

Why don’t we just institute the purple finger method here in the U.S. If it’s good enough for that hotbed of democracy, Iraq, it should be good enough for us here. Maybe it would also bring some peer pressure if you could see the number of voting age adults that haven’t voted. … Then we could all flip Blackwell a purple finger after the election.

Word parsing alert: anyone who is not a Republican is a fraud (according to these guys.) Therefore voter fraud occurs when non-Republicans vote and a fraudulent election is one where the repub candidate loses. Now ya know.

This is definitely one for the lawyers. A good lawsuit will at least expose this “supervisor of the plantation for Ol’ Massa” for what he is.

Good idea, Tom. Hopefully, the Dems will start to fight right now instead of 2 weeks after the election.

It’s the same old story: projecting the blame. They say that they want to reduce fraud ??.. so, now they have an excuse and perfect cover for – guess what – fraud.

Bring democracy home
Kill election terror

So what are the odds that the corporate media will pick up on this?

I give it about 1,000,000,000,000 to 1 …

which, appropriately enough, are still better than Brownback’s at gaining the ’08 GOP nomination.

Sorry for the reality check ( http://lincolnlogsblog.com/2006/06/08/enduring-the-latest-attack/#comments ):

“Blackwell oversaw the statewide elections in 2002 when he was both Chief Elections Officer and incumbent Secretary of State. Bob Taft was Secretary of State in 1998 when he ran for governor. He also ran for re-election as Secretary of State in 1994 as Chief Elections Officer. Sherrod Brown, before Taft ran for re-election as Secretary of State while he was Chief Elections Officer and did not recuse himself– he lost to Taft. Anthony Celebreeze beat Ted Brown in 1978 and then oversaw the election where he ran, and won, the AG’s seat in 1982. Brown, meanwhile, was elected in 1951, and oversaw every election re-election as an incumbent up to and including his loss in 1978.”

Ohio has a 50+ year history of the Chief Elections Officer/SoS, both Rep and Dem, overseeing elections in which they were also running without anyone complaining– ’til now. I wonder why? It appears that Strickland/Fisher is already setting up their excuse for losing in Nov.– other than being an unknown leftists in a center-right state– so save your tinfoil.

A history of wrong does not make right.

Tradition is a great enabler for the feeble minded. When all other recourse fails in the fight against progress, some will always shout that it has been done like this before, as if that somehow negates the argument.

It may be a long-standing tradition in Ohio, but the question here is whether the current incumbent will be an honest broker or a partisan hack in ‘this’ election cycle.

And there has been enough proven fraud and criminal acitivity among Ohio Republicans in the last few years that the question has to at least be seriously examined.

If Blackwell abuses his authority to favor his own campaign and party in illegal and unethical ways then he should be removed, and the devil with tradition.

Wife and child abuse by the pater familias has a long history, too.

Sounds as though the press in Ohio had better prepare two front pages, a la Citizen Kane: “KANE WINS” and “FRAUD AT POLLS”.

Why can’t Dems in Ohio and elsewhere just take this shit as a fact of life and work all the harder to run the rascals out of town? From the beginning of our nation it’s never been easy, and the established law has seldom provided a remedy.

My point is that no one cared until now.

There is no evidence of corruption by Blackwell. All of the “fraud” charges have been debunked– repeatedly. This is not to say that some things didn’t go wrong– as in every election in every state– but fraud is a different matter. The election has been investigated by “The Conyers Commission”, the Ohio Democrat Party, and multiple media organizations and nothing approaching fraud has been found. Even the “fake terrorist threat” only got the media out of the way so they could count, which was done accurately when investigated! Interpretations of regulations (i.e. 100-ft rule, 80-stock paper) are differences of interpretation by the SoS and courts, not fraud. All of these were resolved before the election. Purging of voters rolls was appropriate and legally done according to the ODP general counsel.

Kerry got over 500K more votes than Gore, that’s pretty lousy voter suppression and disenfranchisement. At some point you have to let go and join reality.

“Throughout American history both parties have shown a willingness to try to use election law to get results they might otherwise not win at the polls.”

Sure, but what this fails to highlight is that, thanks to civil rights, the “Solid South” racists moved from Democrat to Republican (as did, in fairness, voters interested in other issues). The same group in different parties; the more things change. . .

CB,
so I’d like to know where, you got the notion
sorry, that was bad

So he gets to oversee his own election. Kind of like the already-filled-in teacher evaluations I hand out to my students?

The election has been investigated by “The Conyers Commission”, the Ohio Democrat Party, and multiple media organizations and nothing approaching fraud has been found.

An interesting misdirection. You’re right in that The Conyers Commission did not state in their conclusions that “fraud” took place. They did say:

With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.

See, you could say that the report states no “fraud” happened, because they didn’t use the word “fraud” in their conclusions, but it is dishonest to say the the Commission found “nothing approaching fraud.” (unless you want to get into a discussion about what is meant by “nothing approaching fraud”).

Ohio Court Won’t Punish Lawyers Over Vote
By JOHN McCARTHY, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Columbus, Ohio (AP) —

Ending one of the last fights from the contentious 2004 presidential campaign, Ohio’s top judge on Thursday declined to punish four attorneys who had challenged the results in court. In legal documents filed with the state Supreme Court, the lawyers had said the challenge they filed on behalf of 37 voters included enough evidence of voting irregularities to back up their allegations of widespread fraud. Neither Democratic Sen. John Kerry’s campaign nor his party were part of the challenge, which was later withdrawn.

The judge added, however, that the lawyers’ allegations in the contest of the presidential election were “at best, highly improbable and potentially defamatory, inflammatory, and devoid of logic.”

For the whole story that Joe C. cites, see:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/19/national/a153929D53.DTL

The judge, Moyer, is a Republican, whose own November 2 election was contested, according to the story..(Ohio has elected judges.) Moher refused to have the Election commission preserve the evidence in the 2004 case

As Marketplace (the PBS business program, in its series “Justice for Sale?” noted, “Judges are supposed to make decisions based on the law, not politics. But in 38 states, judges get elected to their jobs, and judicial candidates are raising big bucks and running TV attack ads. Judicial candidates spent more money running for office in 2004 than ever before. Meanwhile, special interest groups poured millions of dollars into their campaigns. Will the mountains of cash corrupt the independence of the courts? ”

See:
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/judges/.

The Chamber of Commerce front group, Citizens for a Strong Ohio, have backed Moher and another Republican. In the 2000 election, the group was sanctioned for its smear campaign. see:

http://www.ohioelects.com/?story=dispatch/2006/05/26/20060526-D2-00.html

Also note, that the Leaague of Women Voters v. Blackwell is still proceeding. See
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/lwv05.php

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