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Federal Judge: Supressing Voter Registration Not an Option in Ohio

As noted yesterday, Sasha Abramsky has a piece up at Mother Jones cataloguing the worst places in America to vote (or even try to). Of Ohio, he writes:

Election activists don't have Florida's Katherine Harris to kick around anymore, but in a system where most states' top election officials are also politicians, there's no shortage of other nominees for worst secretary of state. The current leading candidate must be Ohio's Ken Blackwell, now a Republican candidate for governor, who seems intent on making sure as few Ohioans as possible are registered to vote.

In 2004 Blackwell achieved national notoriety when he announced that his office would accept only voter-registration forms printed on paper of at least 80-pound weight. Blackwell had to back off that requirement, but a slew of other restrictions remain, including one under which door-to-door registration workers must sign in with county officials, and another requiring them to personally mail in the registration forms they collect.

"The constant promulgation of rules and regulations keeps members of the Board of Elections jumping around like cats on a hot tin roof," says Chris Link, executive director of the Ohio ACLU. "And this essentially hurts Democrats. Who is newly registering? People who've just become citizens, young people who've just gotten the right to vote." Meanwhile, Blackwell's office has done nothing to inform voters that come Election Day this year, they will have to bring photo IDs to the polls -- guaranteeing that tens of thousands of mostly Democratic voters will be turned away.

Well, today brings some good news in that regard:

CLEVELAND, Ohio, Sept. 1 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A federal court in Cleveland today blocked enforcement of an Ohio state law enacted earlier this year that would have imposed crippling requirements on voter registration groups. The plaintiffs, civic and religious organizations and voting rights groups that have been working in Ohio through many election cycles without government interference, say that the law had dramatically curtailed their efforts to help eligible voters get on the rolls.

"This is a win for democracy and, coming on the heels of the similar decision in Florida on Monday, the beginning of a national trend of courts rejecting unreasonable barriers to voter registration," stated Wendy Weiser, deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and co-counsel to the plaintiffs in both the Ohio and Florida cases.

"This decision and the Florida decision will send a message to states and could help head off comparable voter-suppression statutes in Georgia, New Mexico and Colorado," continued Weiser.

"This is the third time in as many years that a federal judge said "No" to a state's efforts restrict voter registration activities," said Jehmu Greene, Project Vote's National director. "We hope other states learn the lesson that suppressing voter registration is not an option," continued Greene.

Comments

Yes but what about the Debolt voting machines that are in nearly half of Ohio's counties? It's not how people vote but who counts the votes that determines the outcome. As long as DeBolt controls "results" no election will be democratic.

Posted by: GWeil on 09/01/06 at 8:41 PM

We've certainly have come a long way since the great "Presidential Vote Scam of 2000." Haven't we, Baby? Now we're just about ready to net gain thirty seats in the U.S. House of Representatives; and, perhaps, even take over caucus control of the U.S. Senate to boot.

Finally, greatly overdue investigations of eight very long years of deep-rooted Fascist-Republican sleeze, greed and abject dishonesty are on the near horizon.

Perhaps, on the same promising skyline there can also be seen a glympse of some kind of impeachment process against the biggest traitorious fool of them all and his sinister gang of sycophantic REPUBLICAN concubines?

JUSTICE AT LAST --- JUSTICE AT LAST --- RIGHT?
NOT!!!!

With so very much at stake, do you really believe the criminals who with complete impunity have run and provided the nation with the "one-arm bandit" voting machinery for the the national polling places since 1994 are going to allow the above scenario to come into fruition?

NOT!!! There's really no guess work involved here, friends. Unquestionably, this is the election that counts the most for these misanthropes who cannot under any circumstances withstand the national scrutiny of public investigations. Surely, it's their natioanl party itself that is in fact at stake this year.

Indeed, DEMS, you'd better forget about any promising poll results from Montana, Pennsylvania, Tennesee, Kentucky, Iowa, Arizona, Virginia... and let's not forget about the recidivist states of Florida and Ohio... once again.

Alas, friends, the results are already in (although admittedly not the actual vote counts), and the DEMS did not do as well as projected.

But nevertheless, do keep hope. There's always next time... the next election cycle... right?

It's so terribly sickening... once again. Gore, Kerry, Dean and the National Democratic Party itself have known for a terrible long time of the ineffable injustice which I make reference to above; however, because of an abysmal lack of courage and more than a modicum of incredible ineptitude, our leaders have not really attempted to correct the inexorable assault on true democracy true freedom that has been extant for over a decade now.

Call it outright voting fraud, or call it voter suppression, or whatever you will, the invidious result has been the same and will be the same come this November.

It's so terribly bleak. Here we are the greatest technologically advanced country in the history of the world, and we cannot even design and maintain a fair and honest voting system from one precinct to the next. Yet, when it comes to money (the Republican Holy Grail), we so very easily found a way to design overnight an ATM System that guards against every kind of misfeasance and malfeasance imaginable.

Hey, remember when as ever hopeful and ever patriotic Americans - in the deepest recesses of our hearts - we truly believed: "When there is a will, there is always a way."

You know, it's no longer shame on them. No, dear friends, for a long time now it's been "shame on US."

I do hope and pray that God proves me wrong this coming November, but I think not... not anymore.

Major Tom

Posted by: MajorTom on 09/02/06 at 8:34 PM

Now just wait a minute. I happen to live in the Republician stronghold of Zanesville, Ohio, in Bob Ney Country. Around here we don't take kindly to folks picking on DIEBOLD. Now, down in Logan, Ohio in Hocking county in the '04 election there was a little mixup about the number of votes cast by the man who was caught programing, I mean recording the totals, but that problem has been fixed. Yes sir, Mr. Blackwell, a veritable fountain of Truth, told us that that won't happen in this election. From here on out it's smooth sailing.

Posted by: Afghani Jed on 09/04/06 at 12:43 PM