Voting Time A Partisan Battle

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In Southwest Ohio, elections boards in traditionally Republican Butler and Warren counties have approved special night and weekend voting hours from early October through Nov. 1. Because Democrats did not oppose the idea, there were no tie votes to submit to Husted, leaving those early voting plans intact.
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Husted spokesman Matt McClellan said the secretary of state will not intervene in those counties. “Local boards of elections can set their own hours for early voting if they can agree on it,” McClellan said. Only in cases where boards’ tie votes give him a decisive voice, McClellan added, will Husted move to block extra voting hours. The counties where Husted has joined with other Republicans to deny expanded early voting strongly backed then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008, while most of those where the extra hours will stand heavily supported GOP nominee John McCain. Cuyahoga County, for example, went for Obama by a more than 2-to-1 ratio, and the Democrat’s edge was about 3-to-2 in both Franklin and Summit counties. In contrast, McCain outpolled Obama 2-to-1 in Warren County and 3-to-2 in Butler County.
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So, who is it thats playing politics with voting rights?
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
%between%

So, who is it thats playing politics with voting rights?
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The Republicans are since the extended voting hours are only in Republican-leaning counties and not in Democratic-leaning counties. This is a serious issue, and coupled with the other issue in Ohio, the abridgment of traditionally early voting except for military personnel, which Obama wishes to be applicable to all voters, is designed to make Romney more viable in this critical swing-state. Add to this the restrictive voting requirements in Pennsylvania, another important state in the election (as well as in other key states), where voter fraud is unsupported and merely being used as an excuse, and we have a pattern of abuse perpetrated by the GOP leaders. The whole idea of disenfranchising voters is completely contrary to what this country stands for and has fought so hard to achieve, and yes, I would have complained just as loudly if the Democrats were guilty of this behavior. Thank you for bringing up this shameful injustice.
 
meltzerboy said:
The Republicans are since the extended voting hours are only in Republican-leaning counties and not in Democratic-leaning counties. This is a serious issue, and coupled with the other issue in Ohio, the abridgment of traditionally early voting except for military personnel, which Obama wishes to be applicable to all voters, is designed to make Romney more viable in this critical swing-state. Add to this the restrictive voting requirements in Pennsylvania, another important state in the election (as well as in other key states), where voter fraud is unsupported and merely being used as an excuse, and we have a pattern of abuse perpetrated by the GOP leaders. The whole idea of disenfranchising voters is completely contrary to what this country stands for and has fought so hard to achieve, and yes, I would have complained just as loudly if the Democrats were guilty of this behavior. Thank you for bringing up this shameful injustice.
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Yes EmperorNapoleon, along with Meltzerboy I thank you for bringing this to the forum’s attention. Rachel Maddow just discussed this with former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland tonight on her show. I agree with Meltzerboy that it is a very shameful injustice. Every American regardless of political persuasion should be alarmed that this is going on in the United States of America in the 21st century.

Rachel also discussed as well many Hall of Fame voters in PA (apparently PA has a HoF for long time voters) who have voted in something like 50 straight elections who now do not meet PA’s new voter law. 50 straight elections they participated in up to and including the election of President Barack Obama in 2008.
 
St_Francis said:
Why do counties have these different political party make-ups of their boards?

Why is Husted the tie-breaker?
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Because if I understood correctly each county has an equal number of committee persons from each party. Lets say 3 each. Democrats don’t want to block voting or restrict hrs or night or weekend voting in any county, Republican or Democratic leaning. Republicans don’t either in Republican counties so in those counties the schedule gets approved.

But OTOH in Democratic counties, Cuyahoga and Summit for instance, the Cleveland and Akron areas, where for instance President Obama won in 2008, Republicans do not want extended voting. They want to make it more difficult for Obama voters to vote. Not to give them the same opportunity to vote nights and weekends as voters in Republican leaning counties will have. Some Obama voters work long, hard hours and nights and weekends during early voting is when they have the best opportunity to vote. Some African Americans vote on Sunday following their church services. So it affects them as well not to have Sunday voting.

Anyway the committees vote. In the Democratic counties the vote ends in a tie along party lines. And the Republican Sec of State breaks the tie. Perfect plan for the Republican shenanigans if you ask me.

Gov Strickland said Ohioans are just now learning of this and perhaps something could yet be done but he didn’t know if anything would. For the sake of our democracy, let us all pray something is. So every voter has the same opportunity to vote on the same schedule and every vote is counted. That’s the only way the people’s voice will be truly known and heard.
 
CMatt25 said:
Because if I understood correctly each county has an equal number of committee persons from each party. Lets say 3 each. Democrats don’t want to block voting or restrict hrs or night or weekend voting in any county, Republican or Democratic leaning. Republicans don’t either in Republican counties so in those counties the schedule gets approved.

But OTOH in Democratic counties, Cuyahoga and Summit for instance, the Cleveland and Akron areas, where for instance President Obama won in 2008, Republicans do not want extended voting. They want to make it more difficult for Obama voters to vote. Not to give them the same opportunity to vote nights and weekends as voters in Republican leaning counties will have.
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OK, I see what is going on. All the Ds vote for extended hours, but only in majority-R counties do Rs vote for extended hours.
Some Obama voters work long, hard hours and nights and weekends during early voting is when they have the best opportunity to vote. Some African Americans vote on Sunday following their church services. So it affects them as well not to have Sunday voting.
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Yes, I see what you are saying.
Anyway the committees vote. In the Democratic counties the vote ends in a tie along party lines. And the Republican Sec of State breaks the tie. Perfect plan for the Republican shenanigans if you ask me.
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Gov Strickland said Ohioans are just now learning of this and perhaps something could yet be done but he didn’t know if anything would. For the sake of our democracy, let us all pray something is. So every voter has the same opportunity to vote on the same schedule and every vote is counted. That’s the only way the people’s voice will be truly known and heard.
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Well, I must say that ever since the 2000 election, when re-counts were being requested only in selected counties, I have thought that groups at the same level should be treated the same way, so there re-counts would have to be reequested of the whole state rather than just certain counties.

To me, the same principle would apply here, so the hours would be the same throughout.

Thanks for explaining that, CMatt 🙂
 
St_Francis said:
OK, I see what is going on. All the Ds vote for extended hours, but only in majority-R counties do Rs vote for extended hours.

Yes, I see what you are saying.

Well, I must say that ever since the 2000 election, when re-counts were being requested only in selected counties, I have thought that groups at the same level should be treated the same way, so there re-counts would have to be reequested of the whole state rather than just certain counties.

To me, the same principle would apply here, so the hours would be the same throughout.

Thanks for explaining that, CMatt 🙂
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No problem Francis. I suppose D’s could have voted against extended hrs in the R counties and if that forced a tie, the Sec of State would have had to break the ties in the same way across the state. But I guess D’s don’t want to be on record of limiting voting. I can’t say I blame them. The election process has been a mess since 2000. I suppose maybe less so in 08 when there was a clear winner and the Electoral College wasn’t as close. We’ll have to wait and see I suppose what this yr holds.
 
CMatt25 said:
No problem Francis. I suppose D’s could have voted against extended hrs in the R counties and if that forced a tie, the Sec of State would have had to break the ties in the same way across the state. But I guess D’s don’t want to be on record of limiting voting. I can’t say I blame them. The election process has been a mess since 2000. I suppose maybe less so in 08 when there was a clear winner and the Electoral College wasn’t as close. We’ll have to wait and see I suppose what this yr holds.
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2004 was clean too. A 1 percent win means you won by millions of votes. Unless you excluded it because Bush won.
 
Don’t sweat it guys. This will not be ‘hanging chads’ in Florida all over again. If properly handled, this issue can be used to galvanize centenarians from their nursing home beds as Ohioans show the nation who’s the real boss!

I see too many people taking the right to vote for granted - the absolute best way to get a huge turnout, is to threaten that right.
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
Not in Ohio.
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Correct. He Man must not remember. EmperorNap, could you please briefly remind us if possible what occurred in 04? I’m a native and was a long time small town Ohioan. Still am at heart. 👍 But no longer live there and didn’t in 04. I remember though 04 came down to OH and something about Senator Kerry not pursing anything after the 2000 election debacle in FL. I’m not saying Bush didn’t win OH and thus the Electoral College in 04. I just remember there was something.
 
CMatt25 said:
Correct. He Man must not remember. EmperorNap, could you please briefly remind us if possible what occurred in 04? I’m a native and was a long time small town Ohioan. Still am at heart. 👍 But no longer live there and didn’t in 04. I remember though 04 came down to OH and something about Senator Kerry not pursing anything after the 2000 election debacle in FL. I’m not saying Bush didn’t win OH and thus the Electoral College in 04. I just remember there was something.
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There were quite a few things actually:
  1. Democratic counties and precincts were systematically shorted on voting machines. This caused outrageously long lines with some people waiting over 8 hours to cast their ballot and hundreds of thousands either leaving or being turned away because the polls closed before they had a chance to vote. For example, in Columbus alone there were waits of between two-to-seven hours to vote while over 100 voting machines were left sitting in a warehouse.
  2. The boards of elections were directed by then Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to reject all voter registration forms which were not printed on white paper under an 80 lb. text weight resulting in the purging of an unknown number of otherwise valid registration forms.
  3. A “glitch” resulted in nearly 4,000 extra votes for Bush in one polling site alone. A polling site at which only 638 people voted. Voters in multiple counties across the State reported that the voting machines counted their Kerry selection as a vote for Bush. Strangely, this “glitch” was never reported to have favored Kerry anywhere in the State.
  4. GOP linked robo-calls, flyers, and door hangers falsely told registered Democratic voters that their polling place had changed and directed them to the wrong precinct. Unfortunately, then Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell issued a directive to toss provisional ballots cast by voters in the wrong precinct. He also ordered the boards of election not to count any provisional ballots until 9 days after the election. Had Kerry known that more than 155,000 provisional ballots, primarily from Democratic precincts, were still waiting to be counted; he likely would not have conceded.
  5. 93,000 ballots were regarded as spoiled. Now why would 93,000 people spend up to 8 hours standing in the rain with no intention of voting for any presidential candidate?
The list goes on. Unfortunately, we’ll never really know the true vote count in Ohio since the provisional ballots, along with all other paper ballots, were destroyed in violation of a court order from a Federal Judge. As for Blackwell; he was found guilty of violating the Help America Vote Act but refused to appear before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary to explain his actions and the irregularities in the 2004 election in Ohio.
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
There were quite a few things actually:
  1. Democratic counties and precincts were systematically shorted on voting machines. This caused outrageously long lines with some people waiting over 8 hours to cast their ballot and hundreds of thousands either leaving or being turned away because the polls closed before they had a chance to vote. For example, in Columbus alone there were waits of between two-to-seven hours to vote while over 100 voting machines were left sitting in a warehouse.
  2. The boards of elections were directed by then Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to reject all voter registration forms which were not printed on white paper under an 80 lb. text weight resulting in the purging of an unknown number of otherwise valid registration forms.
  3. A “glitch” resulted in nearly 4,000 extra votes for Bush in one polling site alone. A polling site at which only 638 people voted. Voters in multiple counties across the State reported that the voting machines counted their Kerry selection as a vote for Bush. Strangely, this “glitch” was never reported to have favored Kerry anywhere in the State.
  4. GOP linked robo-calls, flyers, and door hangers falsely told registered Democratic voters that their polling place had changed and directed them to the wrong precinct. Unfortunately, then Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell issued a directive to toss provisional ballots cast by voters in the wrong precinct. He also ordered the boards of election not to count any provisional ballots until 9 days after the election. Had Kerry known that more than 155,000 provisional ballots, primarily from Democratic precincts, were still waiting to be counted; he likely would not have conceded.
  5. 93,000 ballots were regarded as spoiled. Now why would 93,000 people spend up to 8 hours standing in the rain with no intention of voting for any presidential candidate?
The list goes on. Unfortunately, we’ll never really know the true vote count in Ohio since the provisional ballots, along with all other paper ballots, were destroyed in violation of a court order from a Federal Judge. As for Blackwell; he was found guilty of violating the Help America Vote Act but refused to appear before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary to explain his actions and the irregularities in the 2004 election in Ohio.
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I must say that I really hate electronic voting. It should all be paper ballots. I could NOT believe my ears when I heard some places were going to electronic-only voting!!! *What *are they thinking???
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
There were quite a few things actually:
  1. Democratic counties and precincts were systematically shorted on voting machines. This caused outrageously long lines with some people waiting over 8 hours to cast their ballot and hundreds of thousands either leaving or being turned away because the polls closed before they had a chance to vote. For example, in Columbus alone there were waits of between two-to-seven hours to vote while over 100 voting machines were left sitting in a warehouse.
  2. The boards of elections were directed by then Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to reject all voter registration forms which were not printed on white paper under an 80 lb. text weight resulting in the purging of an unknown number of otherwise valid registration forms.
  3. A “glitch” resulted in nearly 4,000 extra votes for Bush in one polling site alone. A polling site at which only 638 people voted. Voters in multiple counties across the State reported that the voting machines counted their Kerry selection as a vote for Bush. Strangely, this “glitch” was never reported to have favored Kerry anywhere in the State.
  4. GOP linked robo-calls, flyers, and door hangers falsely told registered Democratic voters that their polling place had changed and directed them to the wrong precinct. Unfortunately, then Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell issued a directive to toss provisional ballots cast by voters in the wrong precinct. He also ordered the boards of election not to count any provisional ballots until 9 days after the election. Had Kerry known that more than 155,000 provisional ballots, primarily from Democratic precincts, were still waiting to be counted; he likely would not have conceded.
  5. 93,000 ballots were regarded as spoiled. Now why would 93,000 people spend up to 8 hours standing in the rain with no intention of voting for any presidential candidate?
The list goes on. Unfortunately, we’ll never really know the true vote count in Ohio since the provisional ballots, along with all other paper ballots, were destroyed in violation of a court order from a Federal Judge. As for Blackwell; he was found guilty of violating the Help America Vote Act but refused to appear before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary to explain his actions and the irregularities in the 2004 election in Ohio.
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Thanks. Blackwell I remember as state treasurer from my days there. Wow is about all I can say and just shake my head in sheer amazement that these kinds of things are going on in America in the 21st century. :nope:
 
In 2008, 8,839 Hamilton County voters cast ballots during the board’s extended hours on weeknights and Saturday mornings, Burke said.
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I remember when we used to have no problem voting. It was called “election day”, and you figured out how to get to the polls, or you cast an absentee ballot beforehand if you were out of town.

Honestly. When the lowest common denominator in our society becomes the status quo, you start to find things like warning labels on chainsaws, advising you not to hold it on the business end.
 
timotheos said:
I remember when we used to have no problem voting. It was called “election day”, and you figured out how to get to the polls, or you cast an absentee ballot beforehand if you were out of town…
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And I remember the 2004 election day here in Ohio. Not everyone has the luxury, for lack of a better term, of being able to spend eight hours in the rain waiting to vote.
 
CMatt25 said:
Thanks. Blackwell I remember as state treasurer from my days there. Wow is about all I can say and just shake my head in sheer amazement that these kinds of things are going on in America in the 21st century. :nope:
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But to hear Republicans tell it, the REAL problem is voter fraud from lack of photo IDs…🤷
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
And I remember the 2004 election day here in Ohio. Not everyone has the luxury, for lack of a better term, of being able to spend eight hours in the rain waiting to vote.
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Wow. If that’s true, your election board in Ohio is totally incompetent. I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes to vote.

Criticism retracted.
 
seekerz said:
But to hear Republicans tell it, the REAL problem is voter fraud from lack of photo IDs…🤷
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I know Seekerz. I guess I’m just still trying to figure out though why this photo ID thing has become such a huge issue since Barack Obama was elected POTUS. Seems since the GOP gains in 2010 it has especially taken off in several states. I dunno. Somehow people voted before BHO became POTUS. 🤷
 
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