NYT editorial: GOP's election-year strategy: shut down voter registration

Editorial
Block the Vote, Ohio Remix

....The latest sign that Republicans have an election-year strategy to shut down voter registration drives comes from Ohio. 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.

Mr. Blackwell, who also happens to be the Republican candidate for governor this year, has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2004, he instructed county boards of elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock — about the thickness of a postcard. His order was almost certainly illegal, and he retracted it after he came under intense criticism. It was, however, in place long enough to get some registrations tossed out.

This year, Mr. Blackwell's office has issued rules and materials that appear to require that paid registration workers, and perhaps even volunteers, personally take the forms they collect to an election office. Organizations that run registration drives generally have the people who register voters bring the forms back to supervisors, who can then review them for errors. Under Mr. Blackwell's edict, everyone involved could be committing a crime. Mr. Blackwell's rules also appear to prohibit people who register voters from sending the forms in by mail. That rule itself may violate federal elections law.

Mr. Blackwell's rules are interpretations of a law the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature passed recently. Another of the nation's most famous swing states, Florida, has been the scene of similar consternation and confusion since it recently implemented a law that is so harsh that the Florida League of Women Voters announced that it was stopping all voter registration efforts for the first time in 67 years....

***

Like Ohio's, the Florida Legislature is controlled by Republicans....But there is one clear way that Ohio's election system is corrupt. Decisions about who can vote are being made by a candidate for governor. Mr. Blackwell should hand over responsibility for elections to a decision maker whose only loyalty is to the voters and the law.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/opinion/07wed1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

the entire management of the democratic party should participate loudly and clearly in public: Democrats will clean up the election process.

Msongs
www.msongs.com
batik & digital art
get YOUR pics on shirts!

:kick:

their only hope of maintaining power is to rig or cancel elections.

If only our Dem leadership would listen!

:banghead:

.

actually... TRUTHISALL

they've STOPPED voter registration efforts in Ohio because of Blackwell, for fear of committing a FELONY

The news media is still barely reporting on this and none have yet questioned the propriety of Blackwell managing an election in which he's a candidate.

Ohio sucks. The news media will protect the GOP here.

ad using the NYT editorial as a base.

I'm in Ohio. I know about this (a) through Truthout and (b) through NPR. Heaven FORBID my local newspaper take time away from photographing people playing in sprinklers to cover this news.

:mad:

up you go

and this one to alter the way America votes. In New Hampshire we know the state GOP hired Mylo Enterprises from Idaho indirectly through GOP Marketplace, a dirty tricks company, to block telephone lines being used by the states Democratic party to provide free rides to get out the vote. We know that the RNC paid the legal fees of James Tobin, who was supposedly apart of this "rogue operation." It is still unknown why the RNC did this if they had no interest in protecting Mr. Tobin.

We know that Mr. Tobin repeatedly called the White House right after calling individuals involved in the phone-jamming plot. It is a pattern consistent with White House activity in the plot.

From my own investigation of Mylo Enterprises, I found that Mylo was probably set up specifically for the phone jamming plot, because it was started Sept. 9, 2002. I still have to get in touch with a few people to confirm this, but I believe the address given by Lee LeBlanc and Shaun Hansen, the people who started Mylo, was occupied by another business at the time. This might possibly indicate the owner of the business at the address was complicit in the plot.

The GOP is pulling some very dirty tricks, some legal and most not, and they may be able to steal another election this year.

Please contact me at originalpckelly@gmail.com if you find any voting irregularities out there, during an attempt to exercise your voting rights.

I've been saying he sure has the makings of someone who belongs in prison! oh yeah, here's my bumper stickers from the site below to prove it! ha...


www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<<--- CHECK IT OUT! anti-Bush anti-Republican 06, and pro-Dem stickers

but the idiots would have no idea what they meant.

Hallelujah, and keep pushing.

Time to get a weapon, folks. THis shit's coming to your neighborhood soon.

Another bullshit move by Blackwell... Fight up OHIO!

In November 2005, Ohio voters defeated four separate statewide issues designed to make the election system more democratic (small "d") and transparant, including a provision to allow all registered voters to cast absentee ballots. 70% of voters rejected it. Can you imagine? 70% said, "No, we don't want to make voting easier."

Expanding participation in and increasing security of elections is low on their list.

comes fromOhio?

I never believed the results of that vote.

I grew up in Miami County (one of the infamous 12 counties), in the very precinct that supposedly had a 98.55% voter turnout. From 1956 through 1968, Concord Southwest NEVER had that high a voter turnout. It woud have meant that only about 6 registered voters did not go to the polls. Shoot, there were at least that many on our STREET who didn't go to the polls!

the campaign was poorly planned and poorly run. They dumped way too many issues on the ballot and they were very confusing to voters.
It would have been much more effective if they had focused on one or two issues at a time. Also, they used a consultant who is known for lots of failures, Burges & Burges.

I remember three of those issues were "too close to call" in pre-election polls, but AMAZINGLY ALL FIVE WENT DOWN BY THE SAME PERCENTAGE. Hmmmmm. Wow. Golly. That means all Ohio voters voted the exact same way on all five issues. :sarcasm:

trying to steal another election!:argh:

To go visit Mr. Blackwell?

Not unruly so much as IN THEIR FACE.

had been carried off on gurneys, there might have been some impact. It's too late now.

...like the felons in Florida did.

STILL NOT OVER IT.

it's too surreal to imagine that it was a total FRAUD made up of Republican insiders who came down just to do that fake riot...

it's like we're living in Hazzard County and Boss Hog is the Sheriff, but it big society, and where stupidity isn't allowed in government - this shouldn't occur and actually WORK...

it's cryptic and painful.

I second your "STILL NOT OVER IT" comment.

son of a bitches..

Brooks Brothers is Garanimals for fat rich men with no sense of style.

but I guess that wasn't newsworthy. :eyes:

with preventing citizens from exercising their right to vote. Limiting democracy because you can't win legitimately is a heinous campaign strategy.

They could even keep track of who bulk registrations were sent to for registration drives in order to track any "Mickey Mouse" registrations or tearing up of registrations. These Ohio tactics don't give the voter any help to prove they registered and intentionally make the process more difficult. Real election reform will only happen when we get focused on the tactics that happen over and over and stop making it a partisan stolen conspiracy that we can't prove.

OH in 04 350% increase in dems regs.
35% increase in repugs regs.

We lost 1.6 million jobs from 2000

and these little facts:

We had huge #s of bush 2000 voters working for or crossing over to be 2004 Kerry votes
Morrow County (most repug in the state ..... 2000 68.5% bush vote in 2004 62% bush vote)
so that was the only place where 5% + of 2000 bush vote turned on bush in 04?

Relationship between machines per registered voter, voter turnout, and Kerry vote share

More specifically, here are tables for all three counties, which specify the number of precincts, machines per registered voter, and voter turnout, according to the Kerry vote share (percent of voters voting for Kerry). These tables were computed using the data that Professor Walter Mebane used to produce his portion of the 2004 Ohio Election Report sponsored by the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Lake County

Kerry %     Precincts    Machines/1000 reg. voters    Turnout
20-30       4                3.82                                 67.5%
30-40       32              3.51                                 68.4%
40-50       76              3.55                                 69.1%
50-60       88              3.40                                 66.1%
60-70       15              3.19                                 62.0%
70-80       2                3.10                                 50.0%


Mahoning County

Kerry %     Precincts    Machines/1000 reg. voters    Turnout
30-40       17               6.90                                 68.2%
40-50       51               6.48                                 66.1%
50-60       68               6.48                                 65.6%
60-70       75               6.41                                 62.0%
70-80       42               5.72                                 56.0%
80-90       38               5.01                                 47.6%
90-100     21               5.31                                 50.0%


Franklin County

Kerry %     Precincts    Machines/1000 reg. voters    Turnout
20-30       18              4.02                                 67.8%
30-40       130             3.92                                 66.4%
40-50       236             3.66                                 60.6%
50-60       154             3.32                                 57.1%
60-70       90              2.94                                 51.1%
70-80       57              3.10                                 48.6%
80-90       69              3.08                                 49.4%
90-100     32              3.03                                 47.5%


There are two important things to note from observation of these tables. First, there is a general and significant trend in all three counties for the number of machines per registered voters to be very high in the heaviest Bush precincts and then become progressively lower the higher the Kerry vote. Secondly, voter turnout demonstrated precisely the same relationship, being highest in the heaviest Bush precincts and then becoming progressively lower in the Kerry precincts.

...my prediction is that he'll be doing a Claude Allen soon:

he have in common with Claude Allen, other than being black and Republican?

... and just like Allen, he'll slip up in a most embarrassing way.

:rofl:

Unless you count the last, oh, 200 years.

(yah, yah, they weren't *nominally* always republicans, but they were the same *people*)

For dozens of years now, it's been consistent that more people voting equals more democrats winning. Gee, can't imagine why the republicans would want to suppress the vote. :shrug: It's no coincidence that high-level GOP'ers (like chief justice billy rehnquist) made their bones suppressing voter turnout ...

where only landed, white men could vote. Let's face it, landed white men are the RepubliCONS base, their bread and butter. Why should women, minorities or anyone else who doesn't own the land have a right to vote? What possible stake could they have in our "democracy"? :sarcasm:

we are officially fucked. They won't let us vote, and there/s no one to stop them. Is the NYT for real?

"Mr. Blackwell should hand over responsibility for elections to a decision maker whose only loyalty is to the voters and the law."

MUSHAHAHAHAHA. Where are you going to find a person like that in the GOP?

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Maybe they should hire some reporters or something.

This para in the editorial is particularly telling to me...


Emphasis added...

According to the official story at the last election the republicans found an astonishing number of new voters all over the East and mid-west. Bush's total vote increased by over 11 million votes. If you consider death and churn then the real number is probably closer to 13 or 14 million (more than 20%).

From analysis found here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=19390



The disconnect comes when you consider how it can be possible that in these same states where Bush gained so many new voters the GOP was also conducting concerted efforts to prevent registration.

In other words:

We are being asked to beleive that - at the same time that the GOP was going all out to prevent registration using a variety of sophisticated methods to make registration difficult they simultaneously achieved the most successful registration drive in political history.

just Democratic Party registration. There is evidence to back that statement up as well. Many Democratic voter registration cards were "lost" or deliberately thrown away. I know this was probably a small percentage of voter registrations but it demonstrates the measures RepubliCONS were willing to resort to to keep Democratic registrations down. Coupled with outright manipulation of voter tallies, et voila! A huge RepubliCON gain in "voters". It was all well choreographed, right down to Blackwell's closing the counting of the votes to reporters and election officials. It was a coup, pure and simple and not a bloodless coup at that. Thousands have died because that seedy, little, petulant ignoramus Bush was selected once again.

I'M NOT "OVER IT" EITHER! :grr:

As the NYT tells us that the republican party wants to restrict the franchise (which it does) the franchise has in fact (according to the official stats - which I do not beleive for a moment) been expanded more in the past six years than ever in American History. This is a disconnect.

in Federal Prison. There, I said it, now maybe the Feds will snatch him off the street and throw him into Club GTMO.

May 18, 2006

Congressman Ted Strickland (D) leads Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R) by 16-percentage points in the race to become Governor of Ohio. The first Rasmussen Reports election poll conducted following the May 2 Primary Election finds Strickland with 52% of the vote and Blackwell with 36% (see crosstabs).

overcome election fraud, election day disenfranchisement, and the built in vote switching that is being planned in Ohio for this November.

If these huge leads in the polls remain until the election, and then the republicans win, that would be proof of fraud. But even with that proof, I don't know what could be done.

I keep hearing how this will be a "close" election. So even if polls are saying 16 percent, we keep hearing otherwise so when the fraud goes forward, we'll be less likely to ask embarrassing questions.

:grr: :mad: :grr:

sufficient outrage, yet..

Hate radio? GOPTV? The GOP-controlled newspapers?

:shrug:

They can be guaranteed not to miss a trick.

it may have something to do with pollution or something but it addles the brains of their citizens.

Is it safe to say that Ohio is a modern day banana republic much like Louisiana in the 30's? Ken Blackwell is Huey Long except he hates poor people.

It's not the people, it's the corrupt power structure that steals the elections. You must not have been paying attention. Blackwell, Taft, Petro, Noe -- Google these names and notice the connections between them and Bushco. Then, aopologize to me and the rest of the Democratic majority here in Ohio.

... on the wrong type of paper. Even though the forms had been given to them by Blackwell's department.
What kind of dimwit would trust anything run by Blackwell to be above board?

Just to make myself clear; :sarcasm:

no offense. Sorry to hear about your corrupt situation, especially with that asshole Bob Taft.

I'm from PA and we have some truly retarded politicians as well, some are Democrats. Hopefully we'll throw out sick Rick this fall.

I sincerely hope you have good luck with Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland. Both are great candidates.

:hi:

It gets frustrating hearing our state blamed for Kerry's "loss" and people treating us like a red state. We ARE majority Democratic and Kerry DID win in Ohio. I worked my tail off in '04, only to see the election stolen. We have to win by a huge margin in each race here this year to exceed the effect of the frauds perpetrated by Blackwell et al. Last I heard, Strickland was ahead by 16%. I'm not sure that's enough to actually get the win.

BTW, I don't think you Pennsylvanians have to claim Santorum, since he doesn't actually live there, right? :)

When I went to renew my driver's license in September 2000, the DMV employee asked my if I wanted to register to vote.

I said "yes".

Then she asked me what party I would like to be registered under.

I said Democratic.

She immediately said - "There's no Motor Voter. The computers in Tallahassee are down".

She repeated this loudly and to her coworkers (and supervisor).

It was a lie - Motor Voter doesn't work that way. The DMV takes down your info then mails a card to the local supervisor of elections office. It doesn't go to a "computer in Tallahassee".

I moved across town this winter. When I went to get a new driver's license, I was again asked by a DMV employee about my party affiliation.

When I said "Democrat" she paused and gave me a long and nasty stare.

...and I never received my new voter registration card.

The Motor Voter request was never mailed.

I have no need for a tinfoil hat on this issue....

Just like any little tinpot dictator who makes people use colored ballots to intimidate opponents, they're just rigging the system to keep poor people from voting. Thugs. This should be a jailable offense.