Ohio Curtails Early Voting in Some Counties

[redheadbaker]

www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/overt-discrimination-in-ohio.html?_r=1

Overt Discrimination in Ohio

If you live in Butler or Warren counties in the Republican-leaning suburbs of Cincinnati, you can vote for president beginning in October by going to a polling place in the evening or on weekends. Republican officials in those counties want to make it convenient for their residents to vote early and avoid long lines on Election Day.

But, if you live in Cincinnati, you’re out of luck. Republicans on the county election board are planning to end early voting in the city promptly at 5 p.m., and ban it completely on weekends, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The convenience, in other words, will not be extended to the city’s working people.

The sleazy politics behind the disparity is obvious. Hamilton County, which contains Cincinnati, is largely Democratic and voted solidly for Barack Obama in 2008. So did the other urban areas of Cleveland, Columbus and Akron, where Republicans, with the assistance of the Ohio secretary of state, Jon Husted, have already eliminated the extended hours for early voting.

County election boards in Ohio, a closely contested swing state, are evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. In counties likely to vote for President Obama, Republicans have voted against the extended hours, and Mr. Husted has broken the tie in their favor. (He said the counties couldn’t afford the long hours.) In counties likely to vote for Mitt Romney, Republicans have not objected to the extended hours.

This is just the latest alarming example of how Republicans across the country are trying to manipulate the electoral system by blocking the voting rights of their opponents. These actions have a disproportionate effect on blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities who struggled for so long to participate in American democracy.

Cincinnati, for example, is 45 percent black, and Cleveland 53 percent. Butler County, however, is 8 percent black, and Warren 3.5 percent. This kind of racial disparity is clearly visible wherever Republicans have trampled on voting rights during Mr. Obama’s term.

In Florida, more than half of black voters went to the polls early in 2008 largely to support Mr. Obama. So, last year, Republican lawmakers there severely curtailed the early voting period. In Pennsylvania and other states that have imposed strict voter ID requirements, the impact will be felt hardest by blacks, Hispanics, older citizens and students, all of whom tend to lack government ID cards at a higher rate than the general population. At the trial in Pennsylvania over the constitutionality of the state’s voter ID law, the plaintiffs introduced clear evidence, compiled by a geographic data analysis firm, that registered voters in Philadelphia who lack government ID cards are concentrated in minority and low-income areas.

In Ohio, as in other states, the Republican Party is establishing a reputation for putting short-term political gain ahead of the most fundamental democratic rights.

[mominatrix]

I have to say that I'm not surprised by any level of dirty pool in Ohio.

[Deleted]

Do people not see right through these antics?

[marie427]

Yeah, this seems pretty overt to me, although I'd welcome hearing another possible explanation for all of this.

This is opening up another can of worms, but I hate the idea of early voting, period.

[mominatrix]

Aug 15, 2012 10:13:55 GMT -5 marie427 said:

This is opening up another can of worms, but I hate the idea of early voting, period.

we have it, in the context of vote-by-mail, and I really like it.

What don't you like about early voting?

What about vote by mail systems?

[marie427]

Vote by mail would be great if everyone in the country could do it and if there was a short window you had to have your ballots mailed in. I don't like how inconsistent voting procedures are within each state, even though I understand that's the nature of the beast.

MX, that's one of the reasons I hate early voting. I get that having one Election Day is inconvenient for people, so I'd be willing to extend it to a weekend (say, Saturday through Tuesday in November). But the concept of people being able to vote in early October just sounds crazy to me. So much can happen in that last month.

[sweettooth]

I think the fact that election day is on Tuesday makes early voting necessary for fairness for people who can't get to the polls on a weekday that is likely a workday. It also clears the way so that those who do vote on Tuesday don't have to wait in such long lines. To make the time available for early voting different for different precincts smacks of unfairness and I can't imagine that anyone would even try it. Surely this won't fly.

[marie427]

Aug 15, 2012 11:12:37 GMT -5 @mx said:

I love early voting because I'm often out of the country on election day. But I tend to be an issues voter not a "likability" voter so my opinions aren't likely to change in a 2-3 week period.

Would absentee voting not work for you though?