Judge Bars Poll Place Challenges

[MannyIsGod]

It's a good idea as far as I'm concerned. If they want to go back after the election and verify every single vote, then knock yourself out, but do not deny people the opportunity to vote.



Presidential Elections - AP
AP
Judges Bar Party Challengers at Ohio Polls

2 minutes ago


By TERRY KINNEY, Associated Press Writer

CINCINNATI - Two federal judges on Monday barred political party representatives from challenging voters at polling places throughout Ohio, saying poll workers, not outsiders, should determine voter eligibility. State Republicans planned to appeal.

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An order by U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott of Cincinnati found that the application of Ohio's statute allowing challengers at polling places was unconstitutional.

In a similar case, U.S. District Judge John Adams of Akron said poll workers are the ones to determine if voters are eligible.

"In light of these extraordinary circumstances, and the contentious nature of the imminent election, the court cannot and must not turn a blind eye to the substantial likelihood that significant harm will result not only to voters, but also to the voting process itself, if appointed challengers are permitted at the polls," Adams said.

Adams wrote that people appointed as challengers cannot be at the polls for the sole purpose of challenging voters' qualifications. Republicans said the ruling would allow them to still be in the polling places "to observe, to be vigilant, to take notes," said Mark Weaver, a lawyer for the state Republican Party.

But Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's office sent a memo to county election boards Monday telling them to bar all challengers from polling places, based on the two rulings. Adams' office refused to clarify the ruling.

Dlott said the presence of challengers inexperienced in the electoral process questioning voters about their eligibility would impede voting.

Weaver called Dlott's ruling erroneous and said the party would ask the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) in Cincinnati to overturn it. If the appeals court agrees to keep challengers out of the polls, the party was prepared to appeal Adams' ruling.

"The law is clearly in our favor," Weaver said. "The 6th Circuit has already had to correct some of the bad decisions made by district court judges and we think they'll do it again."

Dlott ruled on a lawsuit by a black Cincinnati couple who said Republican plans to deploy challengers to largely black precincts in Hamilton County was meant to intimidate and block black voters.

Adams ruled in a suit by the Summit County Democratic Party, which claimed the law allowing registration challenges is unconstitutional because it does not give a disqualified voter a chance to appeal in time to cast a ballot.

Republicans wanted to put challengers in many polling places because of concerns about fraud with hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters in a state President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) both say they need to win.

Dlott said in her order that the evidence "does not indicate that the presence of additional challengers would serve Ohio's interest in preventing voter fraud better than would the system of election judges."

The rulings apply to all 88 counties, said Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell.

If the challengers appointed by political parties, issue campaigns and candidates are barred from polling places Tuesday, the only people under state law who could then issue challenges to would-be voters would be the four election officers at each precinct, two Republican and two Democrat, or another voter.

Andy Padrutt, executive director of the Democratic Party in Summit County, said having Republican challengers would cause "havoc and chaos in the polls on Election Day. ... All it would do is disenfranchise voters without recourse."

In a separate case last week, Dlott had temporarily halted election board hearings on challenges. The state GOP had challenged 35,000 registrations because mail to those addresses came back undelivered. Democrats said the GOP was trying to keep poor and minorities, who move more often, from voting, and was targeting new voters registered by political groups supporting Kerry.

[boutons]

Here's a report of this morning from a Dallas client of mine about his lawyer wife who has gone to FL to prevent intimidation of voters:

=============================

"There are 3,200 Trial Lawyers on the ground in FL, with at least 300 in
Broward County.

They are armed with already fully prepared, 'fill in the blanks'
injunctions, covering every conceivable incident of voter
intimidation, disenfranchisement, fraud, etc., ready to be quickly
filed in Court.

They have a 30 phone line command center setup to receive reports from
the field and to mobilize.

<wife> attended a several hour lawyer training session in Broward
County last night. It was at a Union Hall with a capacity of 250.
There were many standing and sitting on the floor. It was packed,
well over capacity.

They were given baseball caps which say "Voters' Rights Lawyer" and they
will otherwise be dressed like lawyers and will conduct themselves
professionally and politely. She also has a camera, but probably
should have a helmet and bullet-proof vest - I have very mixed
emotions about this . . .

They expect up to 5 opposing Republicans at every predominantly Black,
Hispanic and Democratic polling place. She said if there is more than
one police office outside a poll or if the police are stopping people
and asking for ID, she is to ask them why and collect the pertinent
information. Then she is to ask the supervisor of the poll to ask the
extra officer(s) to leave or otherwise cease checking IDs. In the
either doesn't happen, then she is to call the command center.

If anyone is challenged about their right to vote, then she is to be
in the thick of it, asking the exact reason, making sure it is
legal and instructing the voter what to do to protect his right to
vote. She'll be collecting the names, taking pictures and reminding
the opposing party that they could be committing a Felony. She'll
call that in to the command center, as well.

She made comments about how particularly determined the Black voters
were to cast their ballot. She said about 50% of FL has already voted.
She'll be spending about 12 hours today, walking through neighborhoods
and encouraging people to get out to vote.

They are incredibly prepared and organized in FL, but she said that FL
is not unique. The same is true in OH, all the other battleground
states and elsewhere."

===============================================

So there you have it, "American democracy and freedom on the march".

[Marcus Bryant]

Oh good, the lawyers are going there to intimidate the poll workers instead.

Fuck, it isn't that hard to register to vote. Well, perhaps it is for Democrats.

[boutons]

We aren't talking about registering to vote anymore (but we saw that if you swore/signed the registration that you were a US citzen, but didn't check that box, you registration form is null. Gotcha! you dumbass citizen. or if the form was the wrong weight of paper), we're talking about the intimidation of poor/black/etc registered voters (who hope, silly bastards, that their registration "took") under the pretext of "preventing fraud".

I think everybody knows both parties have decades-long histories of disenfranchimement of legit voters, ballot box stuffing, voter fraud, gerrymandering (as we have right now in The Great State of Texas), every fucking voting crime imaginable.

The voting process is corrupted because both parties want to keep that way. They are afraid to "de-corrupt" it since they are not sure when they will need to corrupt it again to their advantage.

[Marcus Bryant]

Hmmm...which party has the more robust history of election fraud and intimidation?

[MannyIsGod]

the democrats do, and I don't care because the republicans have a longer rap sheet when it comes to ton's of fraud.

Tom Delay anyone?

[Shelly]

?

OT---Manny! Did you get a new keyboard/

[Marcus Bryant]

Until the GOP manages to raise voters from the dead I'd say the Demos have them beat on that count.

[MannyIsGod]

Shelly, no. I'm at my girlfriends apt. I LOVE THE SHIFT KEY!

[bigzak25]

okay, so all precautions are being taken....no bitching after the election...no recounts.....thanks. :smokin

[MannyIsGod]

you're going to have recounts. They are nessecary.

[bigzak25]

They are nessecary....



for Kerry to win the election. :smokin

[boutons]

validating the provisional ballots will take weeks, and so will the election if it's as close as 2000.