"Close to one in every three newly registered Ohio voters will end up on court-ordered lists being sent to county election boards because they have some discrepancy in their records, an elections spokesman said Wednesday.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner estimated that an initial review found that about 200,000 newly registered voters reported information that did not match motor-vehicle or Social Security records, Brunner spokesman Kevin Kidder said. Some discrepancies could be as simple as a misspelling, while others could be more significant."
What is really sad about this is it comes after a court fight where Brunner had to agree with judges who determined she simply had to get off the can and start doing the job.
Some basic questions we should be asking all of the politicians, statewide and local, charged with safeguarding not only the right to vote but the expectation it's clean; starting with why did it take so long? Why did it take those embarassing reports on Palestra.net (a college-based news site...it took college students to get to the meat of this story) to force an honest evaluation of the shenanigans going on? Why did it take stories of one person registered 76 times and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo listed as registering to vote in Ohio to wake up Columbus to the fact that something was amiss? Why does it take a lawsuit in federal court to make elected officials do their duty?
Critics say ACORN...the group of community activists who earlier noted there were problems with their registration drives but it really wasn't their fault...knows full well how these numbers look more like a parody of Chicago-based ward politics. I did a quick Google search this evening on ACORN offices located in Ohio and no surprises as offices in Akron are not only in the same block as local Democratic Party headquarters (also the Obama local campaign headquarters) but the same building. One is 3 Merriman Road, the other 9 Merriman Road. Add that to the growing list of search results on the story. At least there's a nearby Rockne's for lunch to compare voter registration strategy, maybe over a Firestone salad.
There are local examples of this mentality. Summit County Elections Board member Brian Daley took issue with a recent posting where I took the four members of that board to task for the excessive partisanship that's led to decision after decision having to be decided by the fifth member of the board -- Secretary of State Brunner. His point was that much of the blame should go on the shoulders of Democrat Wayne Jones, and for him to side with a Jones-Tim Gorbach block would ignore the issues. The flip side argument, of course, is that Daley and Jack Morrison do the exact same thing on the Republican side.
My response to Daley was that he and Gorbach actually have a great opportunity if they both were to exercise judgment on behalf of the people instead of partisan interests. Should the voters and taxpayers tolerate these blind lock-step votes that deny parties and candidates the opportunity to have observers at early voting? Our Summit County board deadlocked on what is a basic premise of fairness: watching the watchers.
Must the hiring of clerks actually become something that requires a decision by a state official? This week two Summit County elections workers, both in their 70s, actually got into a physical fight with one another when one was apparently marked a ballot for Obama when the nursing home voter wanted to vote for McCain. It was enough to trigger a police report and now a special meeting Thursday morning (yet another one, so how special can they really be?) of the elections board members to review the case. The issue: the one worker who discovered the problem was taken off the job along with the one who made the mistake.
According to this rationale both Jones and Alex Arshinkoff should have been removed from the local elections board on the philosophy that since both of the kids are squabbling send 'em both to bed without supper.
Should any of us be surprised this winds up as yet another tie vote?
We deserve better. A lot better. From all of 'em.
My response to Daley was that he and Gorbach actually have a great opportunity if they both were to exercise judgment on behalf of the people instead of partisan interests. Should the voters and taxpayers tolerate these blind lock-step votes that deny parties and candidates the opportunity to have observers at early voting? Our Summit County board deadlocked on what is a basic premise of fairness: watching the watchers.
Must the hiring of clerks actually become something that requires a decision by a state official? This week two Summit County elections workers, both in their 70s, actually got into a physical fight with one another when one was apparently marked a ballot for Obama when the nursing home voter wanted to vote for McCain. It was enough to trigger a police report and now a special meeting Thursday morning (yet another one, so how special can they really be?) of the elections board members to review the case. The issue: the one worker who discovered the problem was taken off the job along with the one who made the mistake.
According to this rationale both Jones and Alex Arshinkoff should have been removed from the local elections board on the philosophy that since both of the kids are squabbling send 'em both to bed without supper.
Should any of us be surprised this winds up as yet another tie vote?
We deserve better. A lot better. From all of 'em.
Ed,
ReplyDeleteThis is bullcrap!!! Daley is correct! Don't take the whole board task, look at the issues, and then see who is voting that way.
Gorbach has NEVER voted against Jones, and he never will!
Who blocked the hiring of Republican workers? Jones and Gorbach. Who voted against the observers? Jones and Gorbach.
You gusy are the same ones who decried Arshinkoff's hyper-partisanship, like Jones somehow is not!
And Daley has never voted the same as Jack Morrison since he has been a Board member? Just look at the minimal number of tie votes in Summit County. I am certain that he never has participated in strategy sessions before Board meetings with Jack Morrison and Bryan Williams with Arshinkoff on the county phone line - a non Board member. Daley is a hypocritical partisan hack with the strings of Alex Arshinkoff attached to his back.
ReplyDelete