So, now the Supreme Court of the United States will get to decide whether or not people in Ohio can vote during the three days leading up to Election Day. In other words, the SCOTUS has a second chance to try to steal a swing-state from the Democrats and throw an election to the Republicans. Isn’t that special? I’d probably bet on the Supreme Court upholding the lower courts’ rulings and allowing early voting, but after 2000 I wouldn’t put anything past the radical conservatives on the High Court.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Seems unlikely that the court would move that fast, no?
How fast?
Before Nov 6.
No, it’s before Nov 2. The weekend before the election is the issue.
They could just as easily decide not to hear the appeal. Which would effectively uphold the lower court decisions.
That seems like the most likely outcome to me. I doubt that Roberts, at least, wants to step into the political firestorm on this. He is wisely reserving his power to take down affirmative action and possibly the VRA later in the term.
This is quite an interesting decision by DeWine and Hustad. They must have decided there was a greater chance that the “conservatives” on the US SCt would agree to take this case than that the 6th Circuit would grant en banc review by the entire court.
Of course, the SCt could also decline to hear the case (which is what it usually does in almost all matters). Just as the 6th Circuit could have declined to hear it en banc.
What will the five conservative activists masquerading as “justices” do this time? No rational person ever makes any predictions about the “conservative” US SCt anymore. They can do anything and are drunk with power. Here, all it will take is 4 (likely conservative) votes to vote to hear the case. And if they vote to take it, then it is almost certain to be reversed.
As to timelines, they can order the parties to do anything, just as they did with their Bush v. Gore charade. They make up their own rules.
I’ll bet Roberts saves himself for redeciding Roe v. Wade. He’s too smart to tie his reputation to Mitt. No comment on Scalia, Thomas and Alito.
Didn’t the court already say that future courts couldn’t use their precedent to decide elections?
They can say all they want.
Doesn’t mean that desprate lawyers won’t try.
Throw the election to the Republicans? That’s a bit of hyperbole. Early voting is a convenience only. I am assuming that Ohio has reasonable laws like Illinois that say an employer has to let you out of work if you can reach the polls in what I think is a two hour window. Our polls are open 6:00AM to 7:00PM. Absentee ballot is always an option too. Here in Streamwood you just go to the clerk’s office in Village Hall and sign an affidavit that you expect to be out of the county on election day. No one questions you. Hey, maybe I will visit my cousin in Michigan that day. Maybe my employer will send me out of town. You have to go to Village Hall for early voting anyway. Don’t know about the City but I’m sure your Alderman’s office does and will send someone around to give you a ride. Ok, if you vote on election day you might have to stand in the rain for a while. Big deal! I get a slow burn whenever the media forecasts a good day for Republicans on a rainy election day because Republicans will stand in the rain to vote but Democrats won’t come out unless the weather is nice and there aren’t any lines. If true, Democrats deserve to lose. I’m kind of sick of people who have to be cajoled to vote.
This is something I’ve been thinking for quite a while now. While I do not support any efforts to make voting harder, it’s also obvious that any efforts to make voting less convenient can never make it impossible. That said, it seems like people (especially Dems) can always come up with some lame excuse why they won’t vote because someone is trying to keep them from voting. I’m tired of all the lame excuses.
If I could, I’d get Kay from over at BJ to come over here and give you the real reasons this is not just WATB by Democrats. This is about more than making voting convenient. This is about little d democracy. The only reason that the voting experience in Ohio in 2008 was way more tolerable and doable than it was in 2004 is because of Early Voting. And the entire leadup to this point was an all too obvious effort on the part of the GOP controlled state to suppress the vote of minorities, the elderly, AND the young.
Short of making voting mandatory and making the day a national holiday, what we’re left with is a patchwork system where some states set out to disenfranchise their voters.
And, if you don’t know who Kay is I urge you to go over to Balloon Juice and give her a read. She’s the very epitomy of a boots-on-the-ground, put her feet where her mouth is, committed to the real work of a democratic government sort of person who’s worthy of anyone’s respect. She’s earned it.
I’m shocked at these comments.
In 2004, there was active manipulation of polling access. Fewer machines were available in Dem areas, more in REpublican. People were in line until 2 AM.
Didn’t you follow that? Early voting IS CRUCIAL IN OH.
They obviously need more machines. I know nothing about conditions in Ohio and as I said assumed it to be like Illinois. Certainly, Ohio seemed like a normal MidWest-type state all the times I went to Dayton and Cincinnati on business.
I’ve noticed here that people stand in lines for the machines when there is no line for the paper ballot booths. I’d vote the paper ballot even those booths had the line and the machines didn’t.
Also, don’t you have the same absentee ballot situation as Illinois? When you say you are going to be out of town, do they give you a hard time? Over here, you can override your absentee ballot on election day, but you can’t take back your early vote. Also, early voting in Illinois requires photo id, while election day voting only requires photo id if your identity is challenged and you don’t even need that if two neighbors sign an affidavit that you are you and you still live at the recorded address.
Looks to me like Husted is just trying any stalling tactic available to him in order to slow-walk the implementation of the lower court’s ruling. He wants as much confusion about the rules as possible at the local level. He’s playing with fire though because if it looks like he’s trying to deny certain minority groups their vote, and it does, they’re just going to be all that much more determined to defy him. He must have an assurance of a comfy early retirement on Wingnut Welfare because this is no way to advance his prospects for higher office.
Husted waited several days for the polls. No sense in pushing this this far if Romney was doomed anyway. Due to Obama’s lackluster debate performace, Romney is looking considerably less doomed, though still not quite ahead in Ohio, so this is worth pushing for them.
I hope we’re never again going to hear that debates don’t really matter. With Tivo and Youtube repetition plus social spreading of memage they probably matter more than they ever have.
This one wasn’t driven by Tivo and Youtube. Left pundits and bloggers turned an uncrisp play by Obama into an unnecessary own goal. If more of us had Obama’s back, we wouldn’t still be talking about the debate today.
Baloney. During the debate, I began to feel like Romney had been unjustly maligned myself. I knew it wasn’t true, but that was the honest emotional response to things Romney asserted being undirectly challenged, and to Obama attempting to minimize differences by saying they agreed on social security and most of foreign policy. And lefty bloggers have no influence on swing voters.