No, this is not some right-wing fantasy reported on Fox News. It’s real. Cincinnati.com reports that an army of attorneys has descended on the state both from the Obama side and from the Romney side.
[A]s Election Day approaches, the first wave of lawyers already is swarming over Ohio to prepare for the possibility that the election may be decided not just at the polls, but in court.
New regulations in Ohio will likely cause the number of provisional ballots cast to skyrocket over the 2008 number of 40,000. The court scenario is very real, and we may not know who won Ohio for weeks.
Pollsters say that turnout will determine the outcome. There are more registered voters who say they favor Obama, but there are more likely voters who favor Romney, says the Gallup Poll released today. The Republican Secretary of State in Ohio has tried his best to restrict the number of days for early voting in the state (an attempt finally lost before the Supreme Court) and has shortened the number of hours of early voting for the three days before the election (compared to last year). Huge lines are reported today in Ohio for early voting, with some waits reaching 6 hours. All of this hurts turnout and helps Romney.
I believe that the vote is sacred in a democracy and any attempt to make it difficult for a legal voter to vote is the most heinous crime there is against democracy.
I agree, Doc. My wife and I speak of this calculated and deliberate outrage every day.
In the America I THOUGHT I grew up in, such a practice would have been UNTHINKABLE! Any attempt to execute it by a public official would have been condemned by both parties!
And now, just when I need it, I resent the fact that the Birthers and Tea-Baggers have ruined the expression, “I want my country BACK!”
Don’t discount Rick Scott of Florida. He and the Republican controlled state legislature cut the early voting days from 14 to 8 last year.
Oh yes. I could have almost written the same story about Florida.
Frankly, I think that future candidates for the office of Secretary of State should make long lines in previous elections a campaign issue.
There are more registered voters in Ohio who say they favor Obama, but there are more likely voters who favor Romney.
Where did you get that data? According to what I am seeing, Obama is leading in every Ohio poll, both likely voters polls and registered voters polls.
A PPP poll of likely voters released today has Obama leading by 5 points.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_ReleaseOHVA_1104.pdf
♪More chad in O-hi-o♪
♪More chad in O-hi-o♪
Sorry, that was a national statement rather that for Ohio, and it comes from Gallup:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/158519/romney-obama-gallup-final-election-survey.aspx
I have updated the story.
I should go light a candle for St. Chad, the patron saint of elections.
Gallup is the only national pollster which has Obama ahead. And note the trend line – a week ago Gallup had Romney ahead with likely voters by 5%, and now it is 1%.
New CNN poll: only 36% of likely voters believe that Romney will win.
by law, provisional and absentee ballots won’t begin to be counted until the 17th
250,000 ohio victims of sandy can vote by absentee ballot
of the 1.3 million absentee ballots sent out, 200,000 have not been returned
Husted’s office notes that if a voter has requested to vote absentee but shows up to their polling location to vote in person on Election Day, their vote will be counted as a provisional ballot
that’s a lot of votes not being counted until nov 17th
if ohio is close and if the result of the election depends on ohio, we can be waiting a long time for the results
And let the People say, “Amen”. Preach on, Doc!
Three things regarding the Deep Red right’s ballot-box related fears:
1. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” —Benjamin Franklin (attrib.)
2. Yea, we must guard the purity of our precious body politic…as the Strangelove did command.
3. The only thing we have to fear (aside from ballots falling into melanin-tainted hands) is…
I began to think the wingnuts has confused the concept of the ballot box with the legendary version of the Ark of the Covenant. And maybe they are right. Both have the power to make your face melt.
There were some hymn tunes named St. Chad (yes, there really was a St. Chad). However, they were not in the LBW or an earlier Lutheran Hymnal. My brief check shows them only in some earlier Episcopal hymnal. After looking them up, much like the hanging chad issue, these tunes seem quite the travesty. They died a merciful death.
It was nice growing up in the hagiographically challenged Southern Baptist church that The Baptist Hymnal (1956) had a hymn tune named St. Kevin. I don’t remember ever looking the fellow up (and there probably no place where I could have in my town) but it was comforting to know that a namesake of mine had attained sainthood.
Unlike St. Chad, St. Kevin has an excellent tune (not in the ELW either) that I prefer over the tune the ELW uses for “Come, ye faithful, raise the strain.”
I just heard that Republican lawyers are pushing people in Cincinnati to fill out provisional ballots when they are on the voter rolls: http://lunchpailleft.com/
Obama’s insidious tactics exposed:
Partisan murals at polling places, the Black Panthers guarding ballot boxes. Hit those fear butons! Hit’em!
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/slideshow/2012/11/06/obama-mural-greets-voters-at-philadelphia-polling-site/#slide=2