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Subscribe to RSSLegal battles have yet to be resolved in the pivotal state of Ohio over early voting and how to deal with mishandled ballots.
The Republican-controlled state government is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Ohio to have two separate deadlines for early voting – Monday, Nov. 5 for members of the U.S. military and Friday, Nov. 2 for everyone else.
Last minute legal briefs were filed over the weekend, which means the justices could deliver a decision any day now.
State Attorney General Mike DeWine must decide whether to pursue an appeal in a separate case, after federal courts ruled that the state is required to count votes cast in the wrong precinct.
Ohio, like 31 other states and D.C., allows early in-person voting in the days leading up to the general election. The Ohio legislature decided to adopt the practice after the state's disastrous experience of 2004, when voting machine breakdowns and other problems caused people to stand in line for as long as 12 hours on election day.
In 2008, roughly 1.7 million Ohio residents voted early, making up about 30 percent of the total turnout. About 100,000 of those votes were cast during the final three days before the election.
But legislative changes to Ohio's election procedures in the last two years produced an apparently unintended consequence. The deadline for early voting was changed to the Friday before the general election, barring counties from allowing in-person voting on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before Election Day.
Separate legislation on procedures for members of the U.S. military inadvertently set two deadlines for them – both the Friday and the Monday before the election. The Ohio secretary of state then ordered local election officials to honor the later deadline for military members only.
The Obama campaign and Ohio Democrats immediately sued, accusing the state of trying to suppress the turnout among older and poorer voters, those most likely to go to the polls early and improperly discriminating between military and non-military voters. The state responded that election officials needed those three days to prepare for Election Day.
Two federal courts blocked the earlier deadline for non-military voters, ruling that the state cannot value one person's vote more than another.
According to the ruling by a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals:
"With no evidence that local boards of elections have struggled to cope with early voting in the past, no evidence that they may struggle to do so during the November 2012 election, and faced with several of those very local boards in opposition to its claims, the State has not shown that its regulatory interest in smooth election administration is 'important,' much less 'sufficiently weighty' to justify the burden it has placed on non-military Ohio voters."
In a separate legal dispute, Ohio officials are considering whether to appeal a federal court's insistence that the state must count ballots that, through errors by poll workers, are mistakenly cast in the wrong precinct.
The problem arises because many polling places in Ohio handle voting for more than one precinct. Poll workers are responsible for handing voters the correct ballots, but they make mistakes.
State law, however, forbids counting ballots cast in the wrong precinct -- even when the error is caused by a poll worker and not the voter. The state rejected more than 14,000 wrongly cast ballots in 2008, and turned down 11,000 more in 2010. It's an issue, a federal court found, that is "systemic and statewide."
In response to a lawsuit filed by Ohio Democrats and other groups, a federal appeals court ruled last week that the state must count the wrongly cast votes, known to election officials as "right church, wrong pew" ballots.
"The State would disqualify thousands of right-place/wrong-precinct provisional ballots, where the voter's only mistake was relying on the poll worker's precinct guidance. That path unjustifiably burdens these voters' fundamental right to vote," the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said.
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What happen to the Constitution of the United States of America? What happen to We the People? What happen to the Bill of Rights. What happen to the Land of the Freedom. What happen to America? This is so wrong in so many ways, that it's not funny! America is becoming the land of the rich. This is why American's went to war with the British Empire! The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
THIS IS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY LAW! And NO ONE has the right to take it away from WE THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE! BY THE PEOPLE! SO HELP ME GOD! I can no longer take all this F-ING BULLSIT! YOU ALL MAKE ME SICK!
My grandfather said to me a very long time ago. don't be a Democrat, don't be a Republican, Just be an American and think for yourself. America is where Freedom was born and if you go to school, work hard you can live a good life or even become President of this United States of America. The greatest place on Earth. God, Family, America, to fight for what is right and above all, true morals. This is what it is to be American.
The problem is these documents have been beaten about by extremists on both the left and the right for more than 200 years. The courts have consistantly failed to render unbiased rulings in keeping with the spirit of these foundation documents. Politics has become a profit making PROFESSION instead of a service to the country. Just imagine what America's economic state would be if 50% of all campaign spending for the last 50 years had been available for our treasury.
You would think that at least some Republicans would learn how to be a bit more subtle in how they choose to disenfranchise voters. These Ohio R's look more that the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
I wonder how the attorney who wrote their brief to the Sixth District could keep a straight face or even if he did keep a straight face. Apparently the Court was not amused.
The courts shouldn't even have to think about this issue, it smell and stinks like voter suppression and it shouldn't take these courts more than 3 seconds to rule in favor of the voters. Voters have the right to vote and the republicans are trying to cheat to win these elections and on top of that the 1%ers are trying to buy them also. I think in the future, there should be laws implemented that should make these tactics criminal and the laws should be inforced. We people need to get out and vote all of these republicans and teabaggers out of office.
O&Joe 2012 ****Liar Romney 1040****
@gustifer, Nice, well stated and I agree with you they all need to be looking for a new job and all their benefits should be taken back as they have Not done their jobs........ let them do as the rest of America who are without jobs and healthcare.......
Obama/Biden 2012
Well, the Republicans learned decades ago how d u m b the majority of the American public is.
Tell a lie often enough and it will turn into the truth.....to low information rural people who are around 65% of America's general population.
These people can only retain a few lines of information at one time in their brain. So the Republicans have perfected the art on using one liners like, take our country back (racist code for take our country back from the black guy in office), socialist, real American (racist code word for white male), the 47% (minorities), Foodstamp president (caters of minorities), lazy freeloaders (minorities), a Kenyan (a racist word to make Obama appear as not American, an outsider, someone who is not one of us....white.
All of these words can be used to describe any race in America. But most rural white people are bigots. And bigotry only sees the color of one's skin.
This is what the Republicans and Romney are counting on......bigotry.
@Larry-nc-2418660, Well stated! I concur, this behavior has been prefected in rural America, and many bigots today rely on one word phrases to make a decision.
It is sad to think in this the 21st century people have not come full circle or tried to be a real part of the country. It is not just bigots in rural America many are in the House, Congress and Senate.
These are the people we send to Washington represent us, however many signed the Grover Norquist pledge to keep taxes down for the rich, all with one thing in mind to make President Obama a one term president.
Our job’s bills still sit as the repub/tp voted against them including the Vet’s job bill in September. These people would rather America fail, than do their jobs and work with our president, so I think you are right but as I stated above these people in place in our government need to be fired……….. Many of Our real problems lay with our Congressmen/women, Senator and House of Representatives.
Why do I get the feeling that Romney may be planning to win without actually winning? There is so much manipulation of the voting process going on that my basic trust in the Republican allegiance to protecting voter rights has been completely destroyed. I no longer believe these people can be trusted with any Constitutional Process. They are trying to destroy this country by destroying the entire voting process. These are the people who call themselves patriots? These are the people who wave the Constitution as though they actually respect what it says? What a load of crap!
@underemployed, you are right to feel as you do. I have never voted a straight ticket, but this time I will be voting all Democrat, I see from the way thing were voted out such as the jobs bill, and the Vet’s job bill just a few weeks ago before their break.
American do not stand a chance if these same people are allowed to represent us yet vote against us. You may like this site below check it out, also look at what has been accomplished without support from the republicans in the House, Senate, and Congress. I can provide a list of those who voted against the Vet’s job bill if you’d like one….. Mitt & Mutt are equal liars, and they are looking to buy this election.
RepublicansforObama.org
This organization has been around for a few years and really built up steam after Grover Norquist pledge was signed by many of our represenatives.......
Wow, talk about paranoid. If you really feel someone is trying to disenfranchise a vote or the are trying to steal an election by requiring an i.d., or by not letting you have 3 days to walk your ass to the poll or by making you do something that is moral or ethical in conjunction with your vote then you don't deserve that right to vote. I have been to countries around the world and oversaw voting; they all have an I.D, they all show up in person to vote on the one day designated. The difference is usually someone wants to shoot them or blow them up while they are trying to vote and for all of you whine asses, that is truly the definition of disenfranchising.
The bickering here where democrats believe somethign is being taken from them and republicans go to extremes to protect against those who may try to vote twice is childish.
If you want to vote vote; you do not need extra days, you do not need to make it more complicated and not too easy. If you can not get to the voting poll, then so be it and call it fate. If democrats claim they can not vote and need the weekend, give it to them. If republicans want to see your I.D., show it to them because you have it; my mother can not get her prescriptions, medicare card, state assistance or money from the bank without it so if you don't have one then you probably aren't a legal voter like they say.
It bothers me how many of you are just followers and stay party line like a group of lemmings. Use your own mind a personally evaluate, stop with the conspiracy theory line of thinking. Truthfully you make me wonder if someone should not require evaluations to determine if most of you are mentally incapacitated to vote.
@Dino-1907197,
It is nice your mother has all of her ID. I was 16 years old when my mother was allowed to vote in America, I can remember when the ACT was signed, so you may sit there and be judgmental of others but while you are thinking it is just BS for some to have concerns in America; you may want to check out what you are speaking/writing about.
It is no secret and it is no joke if you are so sick of reading others concerns then you have a choice do not read or look at another persons concerns or thoughts on the matter……… Keep your head under that rock were you are safe from what is really happening in America…………. God bless you
right on!
you are right about one part of your entire statement "you do not need to make it more difficult" - the GOP is in charge of that.
Iam with geewizz-6485144, and think you need to put your head back under that rock. Maybe someone will look under it and pull you out, maybe they'll leave you there where you belong.
If Republicans think that they are "fixing voting" they are of course lying or are so pathetically partisan that they are incapable of independent thought. The intent of this and every other Republican State that suddenly changed their laws to stop or cut early voting was to stop Democrat votes. It is as simple as that. There is absolutely no ethical or reasons of honor behind any of the Republicans voting rules. I think most Republicans even know this. In the process they are ruining their chances in 2016. Blacks and Latinos won't forget this indignity.
Souls to the polls can take place on a Sunday that has early voting. Sister and Brothers get together and go to the polls after church the first chance you get.Pitch in for gas on the church bus and have a pot luck at your local polling place.Just vote if for no other reason than to prove to those who try to suppress and intimidate, you can't be pushed around!
Well the Republicans, are showing their dirt all the time, and getting away with it because of party lines, or getting paid to keep voting them in, or they have always been stealing the votes, and folks weren't paying attention or was in denial? Why would folks in this country keep voting them fools in? They have tried to smear the President with their lies, playing on people, while stealing, cheating, using propaganda, sterotypes, suppressing the vote, and people know it is true, everything they kept accussing the President of, they were doing it, and not the President!
The party of 1% has run out of smokescreens & must resort to election sabotage and voter harassment to survive. There are no constituencies to support narcissism & greed of a few with no country, who hide their gains in distant archipelagos to avoid taxes. (source: )
NOTE: In 1998, Kathryn Harris, Secretary of State who was responsible for the election process quietly purged 7,000 qualified voters of a similar nature before the 2000 election.
IS ONE POLITICAL PARTY ATTEMPTING TO CLEAR THE WAY FOR MORE OF THEIR ELECTIONS?? I DON'T THINK YOU CAN ARGUE MY POINT.
Oh come on guys and gals the right-wing, family loving, Christians, of the Tea Party and Republican Party would never deceive, obstruct, lie, be two-faced , dishonest, now would they. Come on, of course they are all of this plus. LMAO
The Liberals cry foul when they lose anything they can't cheat at.
Obama wants to keep the no voter ID so he can get the illegal vote he desperately needs. That's ok . Right Turds.
America knows we have a liar in the WH.
Democrats don't have to cry foul, just get around a Tea Party or Republican supporter, and you can smell foul Lucky. LMAO
It is funny to hear the Democrats say their is no voter fraud yet here in Ohio you can see the potential for voter fraud in the right church wrong pew argument. When you couple this to recent undercover investigation where several people were shown discussing how to vote more than once in different states you can see how the Democrats could game the system.
"In response to a lawsuit filed by Ohio Democrats and other groups, a federal appeals court ruled last week that the state must count the wrongly cast votes, known to election officials as "right church, wrong pew" ballots."
"Videographer James
O’Keefe’s Project Veritas caught an official for President Barack Obama’s
re-election campaign helping who she thought was an Obama supporter set herself
up to vote more than once in November."
Read more: www.dailycaller.com/2012/10/10/new-okeefe-video-obama-campaign-staffer-caught-helping-activist-vote-twice/#ixzz28vrrk4Vy
The more you hear the more you understand the Democrats in this election.
Right, Notsosure10, the tea party and republicans are so sweet and innocent. LMAO
Did you think Romney and Ryan are the only lying cheating dirt bags in the republican party? Most republican governors are just as bad.
It looks to me they are the cons, and thugs in Washington, said no to any progress, and told us it was the democrats, when they have said, they would do nothing to help this country or the american people, yet they are getting their pockets fat, along with their special interest! People better wake up and quit being brain dead, after all look where this country was after Bush/Channey dogged it out, nobody thought it was as bad as it was, now it is foundly coming around, and they still want to mess that up.Their specials interest groups and big businesses, are putting fear in the people and their employees, to vote how they say fit, taking the workers, rights away on the job, or loose their jobs!
Them fools has went crazy, people better get out and vote, not only for President but for new senators, governors, congressmen, because this is the change this country need, and keep this President, the President has did a great job, even though some say it is not enough, but I tell you he has made a lot of progress even if some say differently, it need to be some changes, in washington and the only way that can happen, for people to do their homework, and don't be swayed by lies, and party lines, we have got to change some of our, elected officials, even if we voted for them or not, we need new blood, especially in the "congress!
We are just going to have say no" to them this time and the next, the people don't need low down and dirty, anymore just goes to show what they will do next to keep their jobs, and not even sign for the jobs, jobs for the people to help get this economy moving faster! Well I already know that my governor, congressman hasn't did a good job, for this economy, or this country, seems to me, the republicans, are the ones that hate their country! Then always calling someone else unpatriotic! Patriotic is the companies that didn't sale out to "China, they might have to have some things made in China, since all the manufactures, are all in China now!
But they are still here and has been here for years, the republicans always saying they hate government, yet they like working in government for the wrong reasons, and we the people need to look back at the last 10 years, and realize how the Congress has fail the people, while they are out wasting taxpayers dollars, on law suits, trying to block the vote, next they will probably have people at the voting polls with riffles, trying to intimidate voters! If your elected officials hadn't, done a good job, and it seems most of them haven't else, those jobs bills would be working by now! If they come back with the same old man mess, even if they wait to see if they keep their jobs after the election, they still don't deserve to stay in "office!!!!!
Notice how since the Country is just about split down the middle, these funny new rules pop up from no where? The GOP is so desperate. This is what they have resorted to. This brings back memories of Jeb Bush and FLA with funny voting machines? Only illegal voting that is going on is some Republican Based company in Fla. Then that gets swept under the rug. Now they want to make everyone so confused they just don't go vote. Whats next?
Tonight another ass whopin!
So snow white, superman and pinnocio are walking down the street together. They see a sign saying Miss World Beauty Contest, contestants welcome. Snow White goes in and later comes out with a tiara and flowers. They continue walking down the street and see a sign World's Strongest Man contest. Superman goes in and later comes out with a big belt stating he's the world's strongest man! They continue walking down the street and they see a sign World's best LIAR Contest. Pinnocio goes in and later comes out shaking his head. The other two look at him and he asks Who is Mitt Romney?
This is a blatant attempt by the GOP all across the U.S. to put any and all obstacles to voting in the hopes that it either confuses voters, deters voters, scares voters, intimidates voters, and just outright keep voters away from the polls that tend to vote for the Democrat.
This is a sad commentary on the GOP however. The Republicans for the last couple of political cycles have not been able to win on the merits , or win on the issues of the day. Instead we see republicans practicing diverstion politics (i.e. Obama is not born here etc.) and voter supression.
A party that finds itself so low, so desperate that they engage in voter supression under the guise of "fighting voter fraud" is a part that doesn't have a future.
If the GOP party has superior ideas and superior solutions to the issues of problems of this country, then republicans would feel secure and show confidance in our democratic process. That the GOP has engaged in these racist, anti democratic tactics is evidence that the the republicans are badly losing the contest of ideas and integrity.
Beyond this , the GOP has historically been against anything that promotes citizen participation in our democratic process, against anything that would make it easier or more conveniant to participate in our elections.
A party can never win in the long run, if a major pillar of your party is to thwart increases in citizen participation.
President Obama will win Ohio, New Mexico, and it's game over for Romney.
some advice to the GOP: try actually doing things to prove you care about average working americans.
Ohio is not the only state controlled by the GOP that is doing everything it can to make it hard, next to impossible, or outright impossible for people to vote this year. It just demonstrates their "must win at any cost" (morally right or not) mentality. How pathetic they have become. How sad it is that they will stoop so low (somewhere below whale slime) to treat their fellow citizens the way they are. I do hope that the courts will overturn these laws in so many states as unconstitutional before the Election rolls around. However, in too many cases, it will be too late for justice to prevail.
AS AN OHIOAN! and a voter who has never missed an election, (not even a special election)(we have those here occasionally), I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, Liberal nor Conservative, I vote for who I think will do the best job. Though I do have to say this: At the first election I ever attended it was held at a Union Hall, the union workers were going up and down the line trying to intimidate the voters and threatening them, ecouraging them to vote for Jimmy Carter, (Illegal in Ohio) When Kerry ran for office the polling place had his signs every 10 feet from the street all the way up to the door, (illegal in Ohio) I and others complained untill they were taken down, we drove past the place an hour later and they were put back up. At the last election there was a bus load of voters (About 40) who had just arrived from North Carolina who were boasting about voting for Obama that morning and making the trip here in time to vote again for Obama. (Illegal in Ohio).
The moral of the story is that from what I have seen with my own 2 eyes is that if anyone is cheating the system it is the Democratic Party, I am leary of the Ideas that the Democrats want to put in place in my state because it will make it easier for people to "Vote early-Vote often" from both parties. The system that is in place now hampers that a little and the only people I see complaining about it is the Democrats, with my past experiences I think the rat I smell is from the people who break the the rules most often.
LOL, Independent??
Yet you do not see the difference between overly aggressive
campaigning and,,,,,,,,Refusing to let legitimate voters vote??
Pathetic
The simple truth is Republicans are having a problem with this from coast to coast
and that problem is,,,,,,When was the last verifiable case of voter fraud in Ohio?