Voter Suppression Shuffle in Cincinnati

Let’s dance!

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has jumped into the alleged voter registration fraud campaign being conducted nationwide against newly registered voters. Deters has convened a grand jury and has subpoenaed the records for about 40% of the new voters, in order to check them out. But he says it’s not political. He is just doing his job as the lawyer of record for the Hamilton County Board of Elections.

Deters has long had a habit of using the power of his office to intimidate anyone who disagrees with his version of what should be the status quo. What is his status quo? Republicans in charge, poor people invisible and black people in jail.

Republicans across the nation have been going after ACORN, a grassroots organization that has reportedly registered more than one million new voters, with most of them leaning toward Barack Obama.

Here in Ohio, the GOP first attacked early voting...then the window that allows folks to register and vote all on the same day. The Republicans filed suit in state, and federal courts. The sixth circuit court of appeals tried to force the State of Ohio to make up an entirely new system for checking voter registration. The new system duplicates one already in place and functioning. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner filed a motion with the United States Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. SUPCO backed Brunner and the State of Ohio.

Yet the GOP and Joe Deters are not content to let the matter rest.

Elections officials have said throughout this farce that many of the questionable registrations were initially flagged by ACORN itself. Officials also say that many of the troubles on the new registrations are the result of erroneous entry by elections officials who key in the info to the computer. In other words, a faulty registration is not a concrete indication of fraud. It’s not even fraud until or unless “Mickey Mouse” shows up to vote. Casting the vote or attempting to cast the vote, is fraud. What we have now, is a scenario that means elections officials simply have to be left alone to do what they are paid to do.

Yet, Deters, and other Sheriffs and County prosecutors around Ohio are wasting taxpayer money chasing ghosts in an attempt to once again steal an election for their chosen candidate. And make no mistake about it, Deters colors are fully visible. He is chairman of the southwest Ohio campaign for McCain/Palin.

If he were really doing his job, he would have stepped aside and allowed the appointment of an independent counsel or prosecutor of some kind to handle the situation, if he deemed it so reprehensible that it needs immediate attention from law enforcement.

One note, national voting statistics do track voter fraud. Records show that from 2000-2005 there was exactly one case of voter fraud, nationally. Just one..Today there is another one, a guy hired by the republican party in California to register voters. He has been arrested for allegedly tricking people into changing their party affiliation by telling them that the papers they were signing was a petition to get tougher on child molesters.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections is holding a special meeting today. I hope common sense rules and someone is able to tell Joe Deters to go back to his office, close the door, sit down and shut up for a change.

Voter Intimidation in Ohio

The Sheriff of Greene County, a republican, has asked for the registration cards of all 302 newly registered voters in his area. Greene County is located in southwest Ohio and is home to several colleges, including historically black , Central State College and Wilberforce University. Wright State, Antioch and Cedarville are also located in this area. Most of the students are thought to lean toward the democrats. Antioch in particular is famously noted for its rebellious, left leaning attitudes.

Sheriff Gene Fischer says he is not politically motivated, he’s just reacting to complaints from his constituents who fear there may be some fraud going on. It should be noted that the Greene County prosecutor who is representing Fischer, is a former law partner of former GOP Senator Mike DeWine, who is chairman of John McCain’s Ohio organization.

The Ohio GOP has been upset, issuing legal challenge after legal challenge against the State’s window allowing voter registration and early voting on the same day. The early voting window was put into place during Republican Bob Taft’s regime in 2006. This is the same regime which installed Ken Blackwell a former Cincinnatian, as Secretary of State. Blackwell is believed to have led the charge in tampering with the 2004 presidential election. After being voted out of office, Blackwell went to work for a GOP conservative think tank. Ohio went to Bush by a mere 118,000 or so votes. The GOP had no problem with it until the new law began to benefit Democrats as well as Republicans.

Brunner says her office will turn over the requested records with the names, telephone numbers and social security numbers blacked out.

Fischer acted yesterday, after a federal judge in Columbus issued a ruling ordering Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to verify all new registrations against government data bases, specifically, Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, or Social Security records.

The order was prompted by a lawsuit filed against Brunner by the Ohio Republican Party. Some 666,000 people have registered to vote in this election since the beginning of the year.

The GOP says its just trying to prevent fraud in the upcoming presidential election. The state already makes these checks, but Brunner is appealing the ruling because she says federal law has no recourse if a mismatch is found in the first place.

The GOP claims Brunner is being partisan and doesn’t want to make the checks because to do so would harm Barack Obama’s chances in Ohio.

© 2008 Jo Anne Moore, JAM Publications