The old baseball adage that three strikes and you are out applies to Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted and his underhanded effort to emulate his predecessor, the infamous J. Kenneth Blackwell (R), by preventing Early Voting for all over the last three days before the November 6, 2012 election.
That effort, to restrict voting in those days to active-duty military voters only, was first rejected by U.S. District Court Judge Peter Economus (strike one!) whose decision was upheld in all aspects by a three judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal — strike two!
Now comes an order from the U.S. Supreme Court summarily rejecting Husted’s eleventh hour request for a stay of Judge Economus’ decision — strike three!
When Brad Friedman interviewed the former Democratic Ohio Sec. of State Jennifer Brunner in mid-August, she explained how Husted’s efforts to limit early voting were “clearly aimed at ‘Souls to the Polls,'” the very successful effort by African-American churches to encourage their congregations to get out and vote on the Sunday before Election Day. During the 2008 election, nearly 100,000 largely Democratic-leaning voters cast their vote over that weekend.
Husted, who previously backed off an earlier effort to obstruct Judge Economus’ initial order, filing an apology to the court in early September, has now issued a directive informing all County Election Boards “to open for early voting from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on Nov. 3, 1-5 p.m. on Nov. 4 and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on Nov. 5,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
Contrary to the initial lie spun by the right wing echo chamber and by Mitt Romney himself, this case in no way impacted the right of military voters to cast Early Absentee ballots. To the contrary, it assured that all lawfully registered voters could do so.
This is a very clear victory for democracy.
UPDATE: The order [PDF] reveals that although Husted filed the application for a stay with Justice Kagan, she referred the request “to the Court,” which, in turn, denied the stay without any dissents.
They’ll try anything to win. Is there any doubt a Romney administration would favor the rich and increase the income gap in our country? Mitt is a pariah in Mormon Clothing and will stop at nothing to expand an empire of greed for the rich in this country by expanding tax cuts for the 1% of the wealthiest Americans. He’s out to gut the Middle Class for every red cent he can get. Will his sacred Mormon underwear grant him the protection and money to buy this election? See for yourself as Mitt dons his tighty-whities sent down from the Good Lord Himself at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/05/mitt-romneys-magic-mormon-underwear.html
There needs to be a “Strike Four” — a clear warning from the Justice Department that Husted will be investigated and prosecuted if he fails to comply fully with the ruling.
all very well but:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/12130-will-hig-owned-e-voting-machines-give-romney-the-white-house#.UH7iPGn6Bk4.facebook
Apparently it is only a partial “win for voters”:
“Despite Court Order, Ohio’s GOP Election Chief Is Still Cutting Back Early Voting”
http://tinyurl.com/9j77jqu
John Puma makes a valid point @ 4, especially since, as noted by Think Progress:
Husted’s reasons are rather obvious given several counties already report early turnout that is nearly double of that of the previous election, with Obama leading amongst early voters by 19% whereas Romney and Obama are tied at 43% amongst those yet to vote.
The problem is that I do not believe the reduced hours violate Judge Economus’order[PDF], which states:
Uniform reduced hours were applied equally to all counties.
If they were concerned about a specified number of hours, the petitioners should have raised that in the original proceeding. They may find it difficult to persuade Judge Economus to order additional hours at this late date.