MyDD :: Voter Purge in ground-zero Ohio

Voter Purge in ground-zero Ohio

by Jerome Armstrong, Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 12:02:05 PM EST

They say that Ohio is the Florida of 2004, and the candidate's buying of advertising reflects that (NJ Hotline):

Actions have always spoken louder than rhetoric when it comes to campaign strategy and today's analysis of TV ad spending in all 210 U.S. media markets shows the campaigns haven't lied about one thing: OH is EVERYTHING in this WH campaign.

According to Neilsen data examined by the WI Advertising Project, four of the top 5 most advertised markets all are in OH (Toledo, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland). Not a single FL market is in the top 10 for Bush, Kerry or the Dem 527s.

And similar to Florida in 2000, the all-Republican Ohio state government is doing their Republican part, by purging the lists of Ohio voters.

Hopefully this matter gets looked into, not only by the Citizens for Legitimate Government, but also by the Democratic Party:

Note that over 105,000 voters were purged because they had not voted in 4 years, including 2 federal election cycles....

If 110,000 voters can be purged from the rolls in one critical county, how many were purged in the other 87 Ohio counties since the 2000 election? Are the same tests used in every other county? Who has access to the list of purged names? What percentage were black or Hispanic? How do they match the felony conviction to the registered voter?

Tags: General 2008 (all tags)

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Ohio = The New Florida? (none / 0)

there are many circumstances under which Ohio could be the deciding factor in this election, and with voter purges like this, it is starting to look like it will be. I wonder what the voting machiens are like in the state.

by Chris Bowers on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 12:39:25 PM EST

Voting Machines (none / 0)

Here's an update then: http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,94624,00.html

Diebold is headquartered in Ohio, and the owner of that company has famously pledged to deliver the state to Bush.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 01:00:08 PM EST

Re: Voting Machines (none / 0)

Ohio could be worse than Florida if that is the case. Ugh.

by Chris Bowers on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 02:00:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

4 years as in the last prez. election, WTF (none / 0)

and then when these people show up, they'll be turned away WTF, I hope this leads to riots on election.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 02:24:48 PM EST

OH folks - volunteer as a poll watcher, and give (none / 0)

a provisional ballot to anyone denied because of "inactivity." Is denial for inactivity legal in OH?

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 03:18:00 PM EST

diebold (none / 0)

Didn't the Ohio Attorney General take action on this? I thought that electronic voting machines will not be used in Ohio....?

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 03:20:25 PM EST

Not in Lorain, Trumbull, or Hardin. (none / 0)

The (Republican) Secretary of State said that these counties may not use Diebold machines.

Of course, the fact that these machines have lower undervote rates than the current voting technology in the very Democratic counties of Lorain and Trumbull had nothing to do with it. He's simply concerned with the security of our elections.

Not, you know, ensuring that about 2% of the ballots are munged in heavily Democratic counties.

Support Regina Thomas, GA-12

by Drew on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 04:47:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Who needs touch-screen voting? (none / 0)

Just purge everyone who isn't the "right color"!

Can you say "Foregone Conclusion 2004"?

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 03:22:59 PM EST

Jet Back, Bloggers! (none / 0)

I'd need a whole lot more information before I assume this is a voter purge meant to assist the GOP.

Non-voting actually is one of the few legitimate reasons to remove someone from a registered voter list. Missing X number of years and Y number of elections, including national elections, hasbeen a criterion for culing voter lists in many places for many years.

So: is there somethine specifically egregious about Ohios?

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 03:37:43 PM EST

Re: Voter Purge in ground-zero Ohio (none / 0)

but hamilton county voted 55% to 42% for bush in 2000 (just looked it up). wouldn't purging voter rolls in hamiltpon county therefore hurt bush? unless it was being done in a targeted way likely to knock off more dems. does that seem to be the case here?

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 03:45:12 PM EST

They did it in Georgia too (none / 0)

I don't think the act of purging alone is grounds for suspicion. Georgie purged its voter list this year of "inactive" voters - even voters who didn't participate in 2002. That was done by a Dem secretary of state & split state legislature.

Of course we need to look into who is targeted and find any obvious irregularities. Voter purges are common in states today, let's just be vigilant so as not to let another Florida 2000 pass by.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 03:55:25 PM EST

Re: Voter Purge in ground-zero Ohio (none / 0)

Purging Hamilton County voter roles may not be a bad thing, given that, in essence, the it is probably ~60% repub. Obviously, though, purges across the state in a similar fashion will have a net negative impact dem-wise.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 03:58:37 PM EST

Re: Voter Purge in ground-zero Ohio (none / 0)

Isn't it part of the purge policy that every attempt has to be made to notify the 'purgee' that they have been removed from the rolls so that they can either protest their removal or reregister?

This seems like a cheap attempt at depressing the number of voters since (according to my own feelings) this is going to be a high-turnout year (compared to 2000 and 1996)

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 04:25:14 PM EST

New York is Much the Same (none / 0)

New York State seems to have a similar provision in its election law (Sections 5-213 and 5-400, et seq.). From what I can tell, it's actually a fairly standard provision designed mostly to remove registered voters who have since moved and registered elsewhere (same state or different state) or who have died. Not too many voters take the trouble of notifying their local board of elections that they are now registered in a different county or that dear old Uncle ___ is now deceased. Unless this is being done on a selective basis in such a way that Democrats are being targeted for removal, it's hard to see what all the fuss is about. It also has the effect of boosting voter turnout percentages, since one of the figures reported (and the only one which is "official") is of registered voters who cast a ballot.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 04:40:27 PM EST

Hamilton Co. (none / 0)

I'm not arguing that they're necessarily not doing anything wrong, but it's worth noting that Hamilton County has been losing population at a pretty significant rate. I don't have the numbers handy, but there have been a lot of news articles about it (I'm from Cincinnati)...so it wouldn't surprise me if many people have been purged legitimately because they moved out of the county.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 04:58:53 PM EST

Re: Hamilton Co. (none / 0)

Exactly. We don't want dead people and non-residents still on the voter rolls -- that sort of thing has led to tremendous abuse of the democratic process before. Those kinds of folks should be purged.

Non-voting is an understandable reason in context. Out of fairness, OH should have a policy of informing people of this when they register -- and maybe they do. (In my state, it's printed on the registration card that lists your precinct.)

Depriving felons of the right to vote continues to strike me as absurd, though -- they're being held (literally!) to the same laws as we are, why shouldn't they have a say in those laws?

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 05:50:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

It's bigger than that (none / 0)

We've empowered the government (politicians who write the laws, courts who interpret them, and county clerks who enforce them) to determine who can and cannot vote. Nothing is to stop these people from abusing that power to remain in power. We've seen it happen in the past with literacy test, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and they continue today with voter intimidation tactics and felony disenfranchisement laws.

A lot of people fail to realize that a lot of teenagers who plead guilty to drug possession charges to avoid going to jail in favor of a lighter sentence like probation/community service are signing away their right to vote for life. People aren't just losing the right to vote for committing murder. They're losing it for petty crimes as well. And it's no coincidence that these laws disproportionately affect the less affluent of our society (those who can afford legal council) and minorities. In Mississippi, for example, something thing one in three black males are permanently banned from voting. That's ridiculous. But it is very intentional:

Felony disenfranchisement laws are state-level rules that strip voting rights from citizens who have been convicted of certain crimes. If you commit a crime, these laws say, you lose the right to vote. There are no federal guidelines about them, so their harshness varies from state to state. The most extreme states -- such as Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky and Virginia -- bar ex-felons from voting for life.
Is it coincidence that the harshest disenfranchisement laws are mostly in former slave states? Not in the slightest. Like poll taxes and literacy tests, the ostensibly race-neutral disenfranchisement laws were created to keep blacks from voting. In 1896, for example, Mississippi lawmakers ruled that only a narrow range of offenses -- bribery, burglary, theft, arson, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, bigamy and "obtaining money or goods under false pretenses" -- made you lose the vote. Why not murder or rape? Because ex- slaves were far more likely to commit petty property crimes than serious offenses.
Southern lawmakers were not shy about their intentions. One delegate to the Virginia convention of 1906, which established rules similar to Mississippi's, went on record at the time as saying: "This plan will eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this state in less than five years."
The laws worked. One Alabama historian found that by 1903, the laws had excluded nearly 10 times as many blacks as whites from voting.
Sound familiar? Today, our "tough on crime" policies -- especially our draconian drug laws -- disproportionately target people of color. Only 14 percent of illegal drug users are black, but blacks make up 74 percent of those sentenced for drug possession. One in three black men will be jailed at some point. -San Francisco Chronicle

We need a constitutional amendment affirming the right to vote (the several amendments we currently have only ban discrimination in the voting process). I think everyone inmates, parolees, and ex-cons included, should have the right to vote, because simply I think this is one of those things in government that we shouldn't leave subject to "interpretation." I know the history of Jim Crow, and I've seen the law abused in modern-day (Florida 2000 anyone).

We're one of only literally a handful of countries that does not have this right engrained in our constitution. And it's time that change.

by Anonymous Citizen on Wed Jul 21, 2004 at 08:30:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

re: Hamilton County (none / 0)

Hamilton County is not 60% GOP in Presidential years. It went 54.% for Bush. Many of those purges could be black voters in Cincinnati.

This is why groups like Move-On, ACT, black churches, and other groups have been doing massive voter registration canvasses. You can't rely on the OHio Democratic Party. They've been useless in the last 6-8 years.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 06:06:31 PM EST

Voter Search in OH? (none / 0)

In NC you can use this page to check your status, and see all the info you'll need (where to go, etc) and will show you when you've voted before.

http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/votersearch/seimsvot.htm

Is there something similar in OH that voters could be directed to? I checked in Lucas and Wood counties, the two that I voted in when I lived in OH, but couldn't find anything.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 08:56:44 PM EST

Purged in Marietta, Georgia????? (none / 0)

Just found out when I attempted to vote the primaries that I had been "deleted" from the voter registration records. After registering with the local library, receiving my registration card, I find I miss the primaries. Someone ought to put out an all points bulletin of what is happening.

by Anonymous Citizen on Wed Jul 21, 2004 at 01:51:48 PM EST

Re: Purged in Marietta, Georgia????? (none / 0)

You should have demanded a provisional ballot.

It's a terrible shame that the public is not made more aware of the voting process. You have to register by the deadline, but if you did mail your registration on time, you cannot be turned away at the polls. You have the right to receive a provisional ballot which will be counted if you can demonstrate that you were properly registered.

by Anonymous Citizen on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 02:17:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Least We Forget (none / 0)

I would like to get your opinion on the following:

Least We Forget

I would like to invite all of the democratic party members to pause for a moment and watch a documentary called: Waco: The Rules of Engagement. Since they are blaming President Bush and calling for his resignation, think about what you did.

In the film you will see a five year old girl's body burned and laying in a disfigured position. The burning of the body was from the fire, and the disfigured body is from being gassed. The gas the democratic government used caused the body to be disfigured. As Democratic Party member Biden said at the end of the film, the people committed suicide. If the child was alive and then shot, the body would not be disfigured. If the child was alive and then gassed, the body would be disfigured. Logic calls that the deaths of all the children and women of Mt. Carmel was caused by being gassed by the Democratic Party ran by Clinton and Reno.

In the film you will see Reno smile during the congressional hearings as she talks about the incident. You will also see one of the DNC favorites, Shumer complaining as he always does and praising the government's handling of the situation.

In the aftermath, the hearings did not take place for nearly two years, a perfect democratic stall.

Question: Did any high government official visit Waco after the incident?
To this day they have not. This was a great intrusion into the private lives of citizens of the United States, that has been forgotten.

Who was held accountable: Clinton, Reno, anybody. No.

So it stands the Democratic Party, and this includes John Kerry, is more concerned with how the American Military treated people who have tried the kill our soldiers, than how a group of Democratic lead government officials killed 28 kids and women in Waco.

You are demanding Bush's accountable of the incidents in a war and did not demand the accountable at Waco by the Democrats where American kids and women were killed. Damn, it must be a good feeling to be a democrat.

If you have any American in you, you will watch "Waco: The Rule of Engagement". The pictures do show how a Democratic run government works and how the Republican government works.

The problem with the democratic party is:
They will not take responsibility for any thing, it is always someone else's fault.

Be brave, get a little guts, and watch the documentary.

Maybe the pictures of the dead bodies of American woman and children from Waco should be shown nationwide, then the true Democrat with shine eternal.

by Anonymous Citizen on Wed Jul 21, 2004 at 09:53:46 PM EST

Re: Lest We Forget (none / 0)

Disfigurement => gassing? I don't follow. But even so, couldn't the toxic fumes from a fire set from inside have caused similar effects? So we lose the implication anyway.

And even if the gas was a fatal type, Janet Reno is not exactly the same thing as the Democratic Party, just as John Ashcroft is not exactly the same thing as the Republican Party. Thankfully.

by Anonymous Citizen on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 04:33:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Lest We Forget (none / 0)

Have you watched the movie yet?

by Anonymous Citizen on Sun Jul 25, 2004 at 08:14:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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