www.mydd.com/story/2004/9/27/125755/309
paper stock (PDF): Voters-rights advocates are criticizing two recent decisions by Ohio Secretary of State J Kenneth Blackwell that they say will unfairly limit some people's ability to vote Nov. The paper-stock issue is frustrating Montgomery County Board of Elections officials, who have a backlog of registrations to complete. If they get an Ohio voter registration card on paper thinner than required, they are mailing a new card out to the voter. But if they still have the backlog by the registration deadline, Oct. In Montgomery County there is a backlog of around 4,000 registrations, Harsman said. A few hundred could be affected by this provision, he said. This is an obvious, partisan attempt to disenfranchise new voters and deny them their civil rights in a state where new voters tend to be minorities and working class.
Oops I Meant Ohio ( 500 / 1) It's time to let Jimmy Carter and his International Elections Monitoring Group know and to mobilize the KE '04 and the DNC's Legal people.
Mon Sep 27th, 2004 at 01:30:25 PM EST Blackwell is Violating Federal Law ( 500 / 2) Voting Rights Act of 1971 42 USC 1971 No person acting under color of law shall . deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election.
none / 0) I am new to the site, and am delighted to be among like-minded progressives! of State Blackwell: {Dear Mr Blackwell - I understand from several sources that, in your offical capacity as Ohio Secretary of State, you are requiring all county election officals to strictly enforce a state requirement that Ohio voter registration cards be printed on thick, 80-pound stock paper. As Secretary of State, you should certainly already know that his is a clear violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1971 (42 USC 1971), which states: "No person acting under color of law shall . deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election."
Parent double standards are fun ( 200 / 2) You can't tear down Republicans and Nader for their claims that partisan Democrats are bumping him off the ballot for technicalities, then turn around and squeal the same thing when it's your own voters.
Mon Sep 27th, 2004 at 02:35:48 PM EST Re: double standards are fun ( 500 / 1) Except you are comparing apples and oranges. Keeping a candidate off a ballot and keeping his supporters from voting for him are two different issues. I would raise holy hell if Blackwell was a Democrat and he was doing this to keep fundamentalist Christians from voting. I support the constitutional right to vote and feel that you should be able to sign up the same day as the election if you want to. I still say, "I hope you vote for Kerry, but if not then I hope you vote." I have pressed people under 30 to vote in every election, as they will never truly gain any political power without a voice and a steady voting record. However, this is not keeping someone from voting at all. It is simply challenging Nader to make sure he has enough votes. Yes it is a little underhanded, but then with all the invalid signatures that have popped up, I actually agree with it. Just because Nader isn't on the Ballot, doesn't mean people can't vote at all.
I don't support Nader's candidacy, but there's not as much difference between what the Democrats have done to him and what the Rethugs are doing to us as you think. Keeping a candidate off a ballot and keeping his supporters from voting for him are two different issues. Keeping a candidate off a ballot is simply one way of keeping his supporters from voting for him (the preferred way, for non-major-party candidates), presumably in the hopes they will then vote for someone else (Kerry, in Nader's case). It is simply challenging Nader to make sure he has enough votes. Yes it is a little underhanded, but then with all the invalid signatures that have popped up, I actually agree with it. Sorry, but not all challenges to Nader are based on not having enough valid signatures. Many have been based on technicalities, such as filing paperwork a few hours late. In Arizona whole rafts of signatures from valid voters were tossed because the signature gatherer wasn't qualified (due to a drug conviction or some such nonsense). Of course, the Rethugs haven't played fair with respect to Nader either, helping him get signatures even though they oppose everything he stands for, etc. Florida's SoS was especially egregious, defying a court order to place his name on absentee ballots. Given that the Rethugs are going to play dirty, we may be justified in playing equally dirty to cancel them out. It's not fair to give someone a '1' rating just because you disagree with them.
none / 0) Have you looked at a map of Maryland's Congressional districts? There are some ridiculous gerrymanders there, which resulted in the congressional delegation going from a 4-4 split to 6-2 Democratic in 2002, when we were getting our butts kicked just about everywhere else.
in some states they are stringent, in other states they are loose, like in California, which is why the California recall was such a circus. There's nothing wrong with challenging a candidate's legal qualification to be on the ballot.
none / 0) The Director of the Stark County's Board of Elections, is on Congressman Ralph Regula's (Rep. If that wasn't enough, he also has a history of making contributions to Ralph Regula. When it was determined that Stark County wasn't going to Diebold electronic voting machines when 31 other counties were assigned them... " He refused to elaborate on what he meant by that statement. This problem in Ohio is deeper than just Kenneth Blackwell.
I told him i was going to vote for Bush but these kind of actions make me re-think my feelings on the Bush and the GOP. Its partly true, I wasn't going to vote for Bush, but It did make me lower the GOP again in my opinion of them.
none / 0) I just checked out Blackwell's website, and found that the guy is an African-American. Sorry to see him doing the GOP's bidding on fixing the election. I'd like to think that someone of his ethnic persuasion would feel strongly about empowering as many voters as possible. Ohio has both a Republican Attorney General and a Republican Secretary of State, which leads me wonder how we are going to get a clean election in that critical state?
county boards of election, especially the most populous (in votes), most Democratic counties, asking them to contest or ignore Blackwell's instruction. In 2000, the ten most populous were Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Montgomery, Summit, Lucas, Stark, Butler, Mahoning, and Loarin. Of those, all but Hamilton, Stark, and Butler went to Gore. According to a diary at Daily Kos, Cuyahoga has already said that it will ignore Blackwell. us/boe DIRECTOR Matthew Damschroder REP DEPUTY DIRECTOR Michael R Hackett DEM MONTGOMERY COUNTY 451 W Third St. org/ DIRECTOR Christopher Heizer REP DEPUTY DIRECTOR Steven P Harsman DEM SUMMIT COUNTY 470 Grant St. us/ DIRECTOR Paula Hicks-Hudson DEM DEPUTY DIRECTOR Jill B Kelly REP MAHONING COUNTY 2801 Market St.
This is a clear violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1971 (42 USC 1971), which states, "No person acting under color of law shall . deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election." It is strongly reminiscent of the Jim Crow laws Southern segregationist Democrats used to deter blacks from voting, such as poll taxes and literacy tests -- the very laws that ...
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