Here We Go Again
Whenever we don't have a Democratic Sec. of State others feel the need to screw with our election process. In 2004 it was Kenneth Blackwell, Chairman of the Ohio Bush Reelection Committee (no conflict of interest there) and the removal of inner city voting machines. This year they're trying a different tactic.
Last Nov. they passed House bill 194 which reduced the amount of early voting available to the people. Its not bad enough that voters are forced to find time on a workday to get to the polls but for some unknown reason (not really unknown, I'm just being kind) they feel the need to limit voting. Of course HB 194 didn't go over well with a lot of people (me included) and in just 3 weeks 400,000 signatures were gathered to put it on the ballot this year. Once it was placed on the ballot the changes couldn't go into effect, so yesterday they backed down and Gov. Kasich signed Senate bill 295 to repeal HB 194. Or so he says. What Senate bill 295 does not repeal is the valid stipulation of a State ID, meaning basically, if your an elderly person with a State ID make sure its current or your vote will be provisional. But the most notorious part of HB194 that's not repealed is the ban on voting the last weekend before the elections. That's the main reason for the referendum.
In 2008 100,000 people voted on the final weekend before the election. 100,000 votes. That's way more than enough to swing a close election.
I volunteered to drive people to the polls that weekend and it was wonderful feeling helping them get to vote. These were all elderly and handicapped voters and both Republicans and Democrats. Some were as thrilled to be going downtown on a nice day as they were to vote. Some were upset that they couldn't vote in 2004 (the wait in some parts of the city reached 4 hours that year) and said they were going to do whatever it took to get to the polls. I advised all of them on absentee voting but for some people its important to pull the lever or check the box, however its done today. (I wouldn't know, I've voted from home for the past ten years). But what's important is that we should be as accomodating as possible to allow voters to vote, not suppressing votes.
As it stands now there's no voting on the weekend before and the Republican Party is suing to have the referendum removed from the ballot. Suing for the right to suppress votes. Amazing.
Last Nov. they passed House bill 194 which reduced the amount of early voting available to the people. Its not bad enough that voters are forced to find time on a workday to get to the polls but for some unknown reason (not really unknown, I'm just being kind) they feel the need to limit voting. Of course HB 194 didn't go over well with a lot of people (me included) and in just 3 weeks 400,000 signatures were gathered to put it on the ballot this year. Once it was placed on the ballot the changes couldn't go into effect, so yesterday they backed down and Gov. Kasich signed Senate bill 295 to repeal HB 194. Or so he says. What Senate bill 295 does not repeal is the valid stipulation of a State ID, meaning basically, if your an elderly person with a State ID make sure its current or your vote will be provisional. But the most notorious part of HB194 that's not repealed is the ban on voting the last weekend before the elections. That's the main reason for the referendum.
In 2008 100,000 people voted on the final weekend before the election. 100,000 votes. That's way more than enough to swing a close election.
I volunteered to drive people to the polls that weekend and it was wonderful feeling helping them get to vote. These were all elderly and handicapped voters and both Republicans and Democrats. Some were as thrilled to be going downtown on a nice day as they were to vote. Some were upset that they couldn't vote in 2004 (the wait in some parts of the city reached 4 hours that year) and said they were going to do whatever it took to get to the polls. I advised all of them on absentee voting but for some people its important to pull the lever or check the box, however its done today. (I wouldn't know, I've voted from home for the past ten years). But what's important is that we should be as accomodating as possible to allow voters to vote, not suppressing votes.
As it stands now there's no voting on the weekend before and the Republican Party is suing to have the referendum removed from the ballot. Suing for the right to suppress votes. Amazing.
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