Needlenose

Yesterday I warned that the Repugs were cleverly ‘purging’ registration rolls again to suppress Dem turnout.  Well today, Film Critic Buddy was complaining to me that Ohio wouldn’t let him register to vote!  Film Critic Buddy, originally from New Jersey, moved to Ohio 15 months ago for work.  He’s been faithfully paying Ohio state taxes, patronizing Ohio businesses, and generally – living in Ohio.

But Ohio doesn’t want him to vote!  An African American living in Hamilton County, Film Critic Buddy noted numerous election ‘irregularities’ in a previous local election around polling places in lower income and minority neighborhoods – i.e. polling stations that closed early after running out of ballots, polling stations that opened late. 

In this election Ohio has changed the rules, to the point now where an Ohio voter can potentially register and vote in the same day.  How is that working out?

Well Film Critic Buddy has been trying to register in Ohio for over two months now.  First he filed for an absentee ballot.  That registration was rejected on a technicality – the stupid company he works for had his old address filed on his payroll records (ignoring, of course, his numerous other ‘proofs of residency’ he submitted).   He got that corrected, then tried again to register at a registrar’s office.  They wouldn’t let him vote ‘same day’ because of the previous rejection, but told him that everything was in order.

Today, he just got notification that his registration was denied because there is ‘no record of his residency in Ohio’ – in spite of the fact that last year he filed his state income tax!!  Anyway he is thinking of giving up as the 30 day advance registration notice is now up, and filing for an absentee ballot in New Jersey – but I am encouraging him to contact one of the numerous groups like People for the American Way (the group I volunteered for to assist voters in 2004), which offer legal services to help get this sorted out.

Deliberate attempt to disenfranchise a voter, or just stupid bureaucracy?  It’s hard to tell unless we could see the pattern of denied registrations, but given Hamilton County’s unbelievably crappy record with ‘voting irregularities’ I’d say they are just tried to screw Film Critic Buddy out of his right to vote in this critical swing state.  I hope he takes my advice and gets some free legal help and gets some representation with his taxation!

Looks like the reactionaries are pulling the same ‘trash Democratic registrations‘ scam that worked so effectively for them in 2004.  Seriously, this shit will continue until we change the law to make this activity a felony involving serious prison time, rather than letting these bastards off with petty-cash fines.

But the thuggish actions of shadowy Repug proxy groups pales in comparison to the “official” attempts to disenfranchise potential Democratic voters in swing states on the part of well-placed Repug operatives:

States have been trying to follow the Help America Vote Act of 2002 by removing the names of voters who should no longer be listed. But for every voter added to the rolls in the past two months in some states, election officials have removed two, a review of the records shows.

The newspaper said it identified apparent problems in Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. It says some states are improperly using Social Security data to verify new voters’ registration applications, and others may have broken rules that govern removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.

It has proved surpisingly easy for the Repugs to manipulate a few thousand votes in a few counties in a few swing states in the previous two elections without causing riots. The bottom line is that Obama needs to do what Kerry and Gore were unable to do in ’04 and ’00 – win by a margin large enough in the swing states to prevent the Repugs from winning by theft, say 10%.

So keep up the hard work, ignore the pundits already calling an Obama victory – winning the swing states isn’t enough, he needs to win big in those states.