Bob Fitrakis is a voting rights activist in Ohio, who initially rose to prominence in the wake of the massive voting irregularities which accompanied the 2004 election in Ohio.
He is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit in federal court, King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association et. al. v. J. Kenneth Blackwell (caution: pdf file), alleging that Blackwell violated the civil rights of numerous Ohio voters in 2004 by depriving them of their right to vote. The judge hearing that case, U.S. District Judge Algernon L. Marbley, recently handed Fitrakis and other plaintiffs a victory in that suit when he ordered the Boards of Election in all 88 Ohio counties “to preserve all ballots from the Presidential election, on paper or in any other format, including electronic data, unless and until such time otherwise instructed by the court.”
Bob Fitrakis was quoted yesterday in an article by OpEdNews executive editor and publisher, Rob Kall, claiming that thousands of Democrats have been recently purged from the Ohio voter rolls:
Dr. Fitrakis, told OpEdNews, “Essentially, by purging these rolls, the Republicans, by shrinking the electorate, have already won in Ohio. If they can’t win, which is what the polls show among registered voters, the way to win is to use their nuclear option– to target black voters, young voters and the working poor– by purging them so they can’t vote.
Reports indicate that starting as early as shortly after the 2004 presidential elections, but particularly recently, hundreds of thousands of voters– mostly urban apartment dwellers (likely black) and students– who are primarily Democratic– were sent notifications that they would be purged from the eligible voter lists if they did not respond the letter. But, reportedly, the letter was designed to be easily overlooked, perhaps treated as junk mail. Failure to send in a response caused the voter to be removed from the voting roll.
Fitrakis observes, “They aren’t challenging voter eligibility in Republican areas. This is coming from the republican party. They’re not targeting their own base.
“If it follows the pattern from 2004, they will have purged heavily Democratic areas. They will challenge high performance democratic precincts.”
(cont.)
Fitrakis argues that the Democratic Party in Ohio and/or the Democratic National Committee should be encouraged to take legal action to overturn what he considers a partisan effort by Blackwell and others to wrongfully purge Ohio Democrats (primarily African-Americans and students) from the voting rolls prior to the November election. In short, he says they are using the same tactic to suppress Democratic votes that they successfully used in 2004 to help win the election in Ohio for President Bush.
Fitrakis [said], “We’re going to try desperately to get to the bottom of this and try on Friday to get an injunction– Monday, at the latest.
We asked, “Is there any chance that this can be turned around.”
“Yes, A federal judge can issue an order to reinstate all the purged voters.” says Fitrakis.
What can readers and activists do to help? They can tell the DNC, tell the Ohio state democratic party to either file a suit separately or in cooperation with Fitrakis and the ongoing suit he’s had filed since the 2004 election.
Fitrakis says, “Put pressure on the democrats to bring suit.” […]
“When we go, we’ll ask for an injunction, amending this to our existing, arguing that this irreparable harm to the civil rights of hundreds of thousands of Ohio voters, that they’re being targeted because of their race and age.”
According to Fitrakis, the letters were sent out and purges timed, so voters could not get their voting eligibility status reinstated, because the voting registration period just ended. …
Bob Fitrakis has been dogged in his pursuit of exposing the shameful and illegal efforts by Ken Blackwell and other Republicans to deprive Democratic voters of their right to vote in 2004. The success he and his lawyers have achieved in convincing a federal judge to order officials of all 88 Boards of Elections in Ohio to preserve their ballots from the 2004 election, rather than destroy them, speaks for itself. If he claims that a purge of Democratic voters has been carried out by Ken Blackwell, again, in the months and weeks prior to the Mid-term election this year, I’m inclined to believe him.
And yes, the Democratic Party, at both the state and national level, needs to get involved in overturning this travesty. In 2004, witnessed the outrageous and relentless effort by the Republican Party to suppress the vote in minority precincts of Cuyahoga county. These efforts continued, even in the face of a federal injunction against challenging voters based on a “caging” effort by Republicans which was similar in many respects to the one that is currently being conducted in Ohio, according to Fitrakis.
If Democrats don’t act soon, it may be too late to save the votes of thousands of Ohioans. And too late to save another election from being stolen.
