NYT Ed: "Block the Vote, Ohio Remix"

[mod mom]

June 7, 2006

Editorial

Block the Vote, Ohio Remix

If there was ever a sign of a ruling party in trouble, it is a game plan that calls for trying to win by discouraging voting.

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 enacted 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.

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

[Columbus]

1. Where is Strickland? Where are the Dems?

Thanks for posting the NYTimes Editorial. The question is why are the Dems/Strickland silent on this?
Does anyone care? The 2006 vote is openly under attack and silence is the sound from Dems. Where is the Ohio media on this?


From http://www.OhioHonestElections.org commentary on the Editorial:

Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Where are the Ohio editorial writers? Bloggers come on, lead the charge and keep at it, let RFK be your inspiration. Where are the Democrats? Where is Strickland? Why is the New York Times Doing The Job Of The Ohio Media?: “If there was ever a sign of a ruling party in trouble, it is a game plan that calls for trying to win by discouraging voting. 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.”

[Wilms]

2. K&R n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

3. The DOJ will back Blackwell on this one. The people of Ohio need to

be in the streets! They have no representation under the law anymore. Al Gonzales does not enforce the Voting Rights Act. The only time the state will see the feds is when they come in to arrest some voter registration worker on a trumped up charge of illegally registering Democratic Voters.

Here is what Ohio Dems can do. Have one person take one voter registration form PERSONALLY to Blackwell's office and form a continuous human chain of people delivering these things starting now to highlight the ridiculousness of his ruling and the state law. Make as big a line as possible. Get there in the early morning hours on Sunday and have a line stretching around the block. Make sure that cameras are there to record the whole thing.

Since no one will enforce the Voting Rights Act, voters must exploit the crazy laws and rulings which these thugs have made to show the rest of America what they are up to. Force them to re-act violently, and the press will take notice.