I don’t like reporting about this story, but if we oppose the GOP’s efforts to suppress voters in Democratic precincts than we must also oppose efforts by a Democrat to suppress voters in Republican Districts:
About one-third of the absentee ballot applications received at the Hamilton
County Board of Elections have been ruled invalid because Republican Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign printed a version of the form with an extra, unneeded box on it.In a narrow interpretation of Ohio law, Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner says many of the McCain forms have not been completed properly. If the box stating the person is an eligible elector — or qualified voter – is not checked, Brunner said, the application is no good.
Even though the box is unneeded, by not checking it voters are essentially admitting they’re not eligible, Brunner said.
“I have not seen a ruling that indirectly impacts voters to the enormity of this since I’ve been here,’’ Hamilton County Board of Elections Deputy Director John Williams said of his nearly five-year tenure at the board.
Do the right thing, Secretary Brunner. Reverse your ruling. This type of baloney was wrong when it was done to Democrats in 2004 by a Republican Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell. It’s equally wrong when a Democratic Secretary of State does it to disadvantage potential Republican voters.
And yes, I know that Republicans are mounting a vast right wing voter suppression effort to keep millions of potential Obama voters off the voting rolls, but it does no good to complain or mount court challenges to those activities if Democrats are adopting the same tactics.
Obama should also condemn this publicly and then demand that the McCain campaign do the same with respect to ongoing efforts by Republican officials to block votes by Democrats. Let every vote count. We’ve had enough of elections where some people have special rights to vote and other have no right.
A pipe dream if you think that the McCain campaign will publicly condemn this. They’ll sure let Obama condemn it, though, and then turn it back on him as a perfect example of how the Democrats are such hypocrites and that Dem voter corruption is so bad that their candidate has to distance himself from Brunner.
The crux of the problem here is that Ohio State Law does not have or require a standardized form to apply for an absentee ballot. While there are forms printed by the Secretary of State’s office which can be used to ask for an absentee ballot, a letter with personal information identifying oneself as a qualified voter is all that is required. In this case a check box was placed by the statement “I am a qualified elector and would like to receive an absentee ballot”. If they had simply left the check box off the form, then it would have been acceptable to use. Brunner’s contention is that the presence of the check box gives the implication that you need to check the box to confirm that, yes, you are a qualified elector.
One of the big problems is that this same ballot request configuration was used in a special election here in in Ohio in late 2007 and those were accepted whether the box was checked or not. So the precedent deems this layout as acceptable.
Regardless of the motivation of those complaining, I think, in the end, Brunner loses this one.
More reason why I want to see FEDERAL laws for elections, not state. Presidential elections are too important to be decided on such fraudulent bases.
Agreed. Brunner’s getting hammered by talk radio here today. They’re wondering just how corrupt the Ted Strickland administration is at this point. Big Mouth Willie unloaded on her and everyone’s talking about Democrats and voter fraud here.
Brunner f’cked up.
It is the perfect opportunity for Willie to brutally flog one of his favorite straw men. And his listeners eat it up.
As you state: “Ohio State Law does not have or require a standardized form to apply for an absentee ballot.”
And that is a key point: These are not voter registration forms or provisional ballots, and not checking the box does not get you kicked off of the voter roles. These are requests for absentee ballots. An incomplete form does nothing to prevent a person from actually voting. They can still go to their precinct and vote on election day. It just means they can’t vote absentee.
I do recognize that a small percentage of people actually need to vote absentee due to health or travel circumstances. But my understanding is that these request forms were not sent to regular absentee voters, but to most anyone registered Republican. Anyone who requested an absentee ballot and doesn’t get one can still go in and vote on Nov. 4.
So I disagree that this is an attempt to suppress votes. I do agree that the Sec of State is being lame in denying the absentee ballots, but she is NOT suppressing the vote.
I’m not sure why, but my wife received on of these in the mail a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t really look at it. It just went into the trash.
You are correct in that this is not voter suppression. It only serves to give an appearance of impropriety which is really all that Republicans and their right wing wurlitzer players like Bill Cunningham really give a shit about anyway.
Thanks, and I TOTALLY agree. It’s not right just because the ‘good guys’ do it. It’s wrong, no matter WHO does it, and Obama should absolutely decry this, if he’s even heard of it.
with all due respect steven, l going to disagree with the premise that we should “turn the other cheek”, as it were.
yes it’s vile, and patently unfair, but while l agree with that statement, the dems didn’t make these rules, and you can bet everything you own that the RATs wouldn’t give it a second thought if the shoe were on the other foot. sure, they’ll scream and yell about disenfranchisement if brunner doesn’t back off, but you know, as well as l, what their response would be….it’s the law, and we’re just making sure there’s no voter fraud. throw it back in their face.
the d‘s playing nice, by a separate set of rules, has resulted in nearly 8 years of unprecedented catastrophic success for the RATs and a precipitous downward spiral for everyone else.
given the risks inherent in this election, taking the high ground when your opponent will not, is open to interpretation, imnsho.
we keep losing elections because of things like this, and mcstain and the RATs aren’t going to back off their efforts anywhere else due to this, regardless of the outcome.
so l’m open to giving brunner the benefit of the doubt. if there are precedents established that would clearly label this an error and partisan in nature, let them challenge it in the courts.
paybacks are hell….fuck’em
my 2¢ ymmv
It’s far easier to suppress votes in Democratic districts you know. This is an insignificant amount of votes they are rejecting. It’s petty and ludicrous.
l don’t disagree with that. but when you’re fighting gutter RATs you have to get down in there with them to win.
personally, l’d prefer to not go there, but l’m not willing to concede the point. let the surrogates, like brunner, take it to them in the individual states…it is after all, according to the reichwing, a state issue…let’s keep the national people out of it, it’s ohio’s game.
the RATs thought they were going to usher in a 1000 year reichwing dynasty…oops!…it’s come back to bite them in the ass…l couldn’t be more pleased to see someone fighting back.
when Dems play fair they lose. In politics there’s no such thing as turning the other cheek. How many times can we be punched in the face?
It’c called Campaign Realpolitik
GOP in MI targets Foreclosure Victims
and more dirty tricks in MS:
GOP Efforts To Rig Big Senate Race Hit Snag
If you think eight years isn’t enough, then let the Dems play “fair.”
Brunner is right. A campaign does not have the right to willy-nilly make changes to a state registration form in order to push an anti-turnout agenda. It makes one wonder who they were wanting to register.
And the Hamilton County Board of Elections Deputy Director has a very short memory of what went on in 2004.
So now Democrats can add boxes to the form to push their agendas too? What sorts of questions do you want to see added to the Ohio registration form?
1. Register 2. Verify 3. Vote!
YEA-Brunner.
Fu&^k the GOP – the cheating bastards live by the rule:
“If it’s worth winning it’s worth winning dirty ”
That’s the game we are in .
Either fight their way or hand them the Vaseline and bend over .
We can impose morals when we are in position to do so – right now it’s uphill -don’t kid yourself .
If you think McCain can or will stop this (below ) you are delusional :
Mich. GOP Targets Foreclosure Victims for Election Day Dirty Tricks
by Project Vote, Thu Sep 11, 2008 at 03:18:57 PM EST
Cross-posted at Project Vote’s Voting Matter’s Blog
Weekly Voting Rights News Update
By Erin Ferns
Partisan political operatives in Michigan are taking voter caging operations to depths that would surprise even the most cynical observers of American elections. If their plans are put into action, thousands of Michigan foreclosure victims may find that they will not only have lost their homes this year, but also their vote.
Operatives in the closely contested state, which is home to thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure, are “gearing up for a comprehensive voter challenge campaign,” according to Eartha Jane Melzer of the Michigan Messenger Wednesday. The state allows parties to send election challengers to polls to challenge the eligibility of voters if they “have good reason to believe” a voter is ineligible. In this case, the GOP of Macomb County–a “key swing county” with a foreclosure rate in the top three percent in the nation–has announced plans to challenge the voting eligibility of foreclosure victims based on residency.
“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” Macomb County GOP chairman James Carabelli told the Messenger.
J. Gerald Herbert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department, questions what he calls a “mean-spirited” and possibly legally-baseless tactic: “You can’t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so…I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.”
Teresa James, attorney for Project Vote, agrees. In a statement released today, James explains that Michigan law allows challenges at the polls only if the challenger “knows or has good reason to suspect” a voter is ineligible. According to James, the Michigan Secretary of State has clarified this to require that challenges should be based on “reliable sources or means.”
“Republican challengers with only a list of foreclosure notices will have NO evidence or reliable source to suggest that eligible voters have moved and are no longer eligible to vote,” says James.
“The Macomb County party’s plans to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters,” Melzer writes. “More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans – the most likely kind of loan to go into default – were made to African-Americans in Michigan…”
Melzer points out that Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s regional headquarters is in the office of the state’s largest foreclosure law firm, Trott & Trott, whose founder has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the campaign. McCain “stands to benefit from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in the state,” Melzer writes.
“At a minimum, what you are seeing is a fairly comprehensive effort by the Republican Party, a systemic broad-based effort to put up obstacles for people to vote,” says Herbert. “When you are comprehensively challenging people to vote, your goals are two-fold: One is you are trying to knock people out from casting ballots; the other is to create a slowdown that will discourage others.” This type of disruption would be expected in areas with high foreclosure rates, particularly the Detroit metropolitan, where one in every 176 households received foreclosure filings during the month of July, according to Melzer.
“You would think [the Macomb GOP] would think, ‘This is going to look too heartless,'” says David Lagstein, head organizer for Michigan ACORN, which has registered 200,000 new voters statewide and provides foreclosure-avoidance assistance.
“The Republican-led state Senate has not moved on the anti-predatory lending bill for over a year and yet have time to prey on those who have fallen victim to foreclosure to suppress the vote,” Lagstein says.
Michigan is not the only swing state at the risk of voter caging issues this election. At the urging of Project Vote and other voting rights advocates, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner recently issued a binding directive to all county election boards, instructing them that parts of the state’s challenge laws in relation to residency challenges based only on returned mail were unconstitutional. It is unclear, however, whether Brunner’s directive will prevent partisans from filing frivolous challenges anyway, which–however baseless–could have a chilling effect on voter turnout. And the Michigan Messenger reports that Franklin County, Ohio director of elections Doug Preisse and the chair of the local GOP have said they do not rule out challenging voters before the election due to foreclosure-related address issues.
In Project Vote’s statement, Teresa James says “The GOP’s plan is a cynical partisan attempt to suppress the vote of thousands of low-income and African-American voters, a replay of the 2004 threats of mass challenges…In America you get to vote even if you’re behind on your bills. All Americans–particularly those members of the community hit hardest by the economic crisis–deserve a voice and a vote on Election Day.”
Quick Links:
“Voter Caging.” Project Vote.
James, Teresa. “Caging Democracy: A 50-Year History of Partisan Challenges to Minority Voters.” Project Vote. September 2007.
In Other News:
‘No-Match, No-Vote’ Law Draws Criticism
By BILL KACZOR
The Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 9:40 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 9:40 p.m.
TALLAHASSEE | Advocacy groups predicted Wednesday that thousands of people, mostly the poor and minorities, will be denied the right to vote through no fault of their own under a new Florida voter registration law.
Related Links:
* Polk Voter Turnout Much Lower Than Expected
* No Manual Recount In Close Elections
* Trouble Predicted in Counting Florida’s New Ballots – Again
Secretary of State Kurt Browning, Florida’s top election official, disputed those claims, contending recent changes in the law and procedures make it “much more voter-friendly.”
The state’s “no-match, no-vote” law requires election officials to verify applicants’ driver license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers by using government databases.
Voter rights advocates criticized Browning for beginning to enforce the law less than 30 days before the Oct. 6 registration deadline for the Nov. 4 election. They say that’s too little time to get it fully working with local election officials.
“The secretary’s decision will put thousands of real Florida citizens at risk due to bureaucratic typos that under the ‘no-match, no-vote’ law will prevent them from voting this November,” said Alvaro Fernandez of the Southwest Voter Education Project.
His group challenged the law in federal court along with the Florida chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition.
A judge last year issued a preliminary injunction against enforcing the 2005 law. An appellate court in April overturned that decision and returned the case to the trial court. Meanwhile, the Legislature modified the law. The judge cited those changes in recently upholding it.
“We could have implemented this sooner, but the timing just wasn’t right,” Browning said.
He held off because computers needed to put it into effect were not ready until shortly before the deadline to register for the August primary. That would have been too rushed, so Browning put it off until after the primary, said Department of State spokeswoman Jennifer Krell Davis.
Local election officials must notify voters by mail if their numbers do not match. Applicants can appeal by bringing their driver licenses, state identification cards or Social Security cards to the elections office or sending a copy by mail, fax or e-mail.
This story appeared in print on page B4
Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote’s Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).
Tags: Election integrity, voting rights, Project Vote, voter caging, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, New York, swing states, partisan politics, election challengers, voter suppression, foreclosures, African-Americans, voter purging, felon vote, youth vote (all tags)
Why is a campaign printing ballots? And distributing them? This would be illegal in Illinois unless the ballots were clearly marked “SAMPLE BALLOT”.