The Ohio Republican Party for weeks now has accused Brunner of interpreting the early voting law to benefit her own party by allowing same-day registering and voting. Republicans argued that Ohio law requires voters to be registered for 30 days before they cast an absentee ballot.Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, was backed by the state Supreme Court and two federal judges, to allow new voters to register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day from Tuesday through Oct. 6.
The Republican dominated Ohio Supreme Court ruled Monday what Brunner was doing was constitutional. The decision was backed by a federal judge in Cleveland. Another federal judge in Columbus declined to rule, deferring to the state Supreme Court's decision.
On Tuesday, the Ohio Republican Party suggested the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to either stop same-day voting or at least require the state's top election officials to separate the ballots that were carried out with a registration so they can be verified. Secretary of State Brunner already instructed election officials to segregate and and verify the registrations of those who cast their ballots and registered on the same day, before they are counted.
There were problems prior to just now "but four years ago, the secretary of state was also a co-chair for George Bush's Ohio campaign". Brunner points out.
Another law suit was based on return mail. The problem here is that in most lower-income neighborhoods the mailing system is very unreliable. Then in 2004, Republicans challenged 35,000 voters based on returned mail. John McClelland of the Ohio GOP declined to be interviewed for this story, saying they "don't discuss political strategy". Did he just implicitly state that it is strategy for the Republican party to find ways to not allow citizens to vote?
here is a link to other Republican strategy to not let people vote.
http://michiganmessenger.com/4076/lose-your-house-lose-your-vote
http://michiganmessenger.com/4231/republicans-recant-plans-to-foreclose-voters-but-admit-other-strategies
3 comments:
I think being able to vote early is a great thing. It seems like people are always talking about low voting turn outs, voting early should help getting more to vote. As well as being able to register and vote on the same day, this makes things much easier for people.
I don't see any problems with early voting, but feel it will encourage more to exercise their right to vote.
I agree, the whole voting early thing is great. I believe that whoever is able to vote in the election should voice their opinion, because otherwise they will complain if their candidate doesn't win the election. By voting early they get to say they voted and can say they did all that they could in order to get their candidates into office.
I am glad that Ohio is taking advantage of the early voter law to encourage more people to vote.
Early voting is especially helpful to college students! you can't vote on election day without a valid address on a electrical bill or bank statement,etc., which doesnt work when your real address is in Ham Wil. Instead of having to change your address for a week, you can just vote with your ss#. This is important because students need to get out there and vote! All of these problems are going to be our responsibility to ultimately deal with! its interesting (but not suprising) that people are trying to make it harder for this demographic to vote.
also, as a second thought, what abotu all the people beign evicted from their houses right now?? what do they do about voting if they cannot provide proof of address??
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