Ohio Voter Registration Hearings Halted

[Rose Siding]

CINCINNATI Oct 27, 2004 — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily stopped hearings on Republican challenges of thousands of voter registrations, ruling in favor of Democrats who alleged the challenges were an attempt to keep legitimate votes from being counted.

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott ruled that six county elections boards should stop hearings scheduled this week in Ohio, a hotly contested state for Tuesday's presidential election.

The Republicans challenged as many as 35,000 registrations after mail came back undelivered, saying they could be fraudulent. About half the challenges were filed in Democrat-heavy Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland.

Democrats filed suit Tuesday requesting an order to halt the hearings that county boards of elections had scheduled to determine whether challenged voters live where they are registered and should remain on the rolls.
The Democrats say the GOP is trying to keep poor and minorities, who move more often, from voting, and that the GOP is targeting new voters registered by political groups supporting Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic challenger to President Bush.

Dlott, appointed by former President Clinton in 1995, said her temporary order would remain in effect until further rulings in the case. She scheduled a hearing in her Cincinnati court for Friday morning.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=203709&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[quaker bill]

1. Great news

Repugs say they will likely appeal though.

[maddezmom]

2. let's see what happens on Friday

OHIO is going to be the FL of '04, I'm afraid.

[Mokito]

4. They think (or know) they've got FL locked,

so they're concentrating their efforts on Ohio.

[asjr]

3. How did the Repubs come up so quickly with 35,000?

Are they looking at every one? Were there any Repub registrations in that 35,000? An inquiring person wants to know.

[Philostopher]

5. They sent out reply cards.

Any they didn't get back in a 'reasonable time' they put on the challenge list. They did it in Montgomery County (Dayton) as well. There may have been a few Republicans in there, but when you consider how dramatically the Dems outregistered them, I guess they figured they could sacrifice a few of 'their own' to keep those new Dem voters off the rolls.

They're doing this in other states, too.

[leQ]

7. has anybody seen an actual breakdown by party of those?

n/t

[Philostopher]

10. I don't think anybody has said.

I don't know where they got the lists, either -- or if the party affiliation was included. Like GoOPers are really going to tell you that ... they may have been all Dems, if the judge ruled against them. It would have covered their asses if they'd included a few Republicans, no?

[librechik]

12. a lot of them belong to black soldiers in Iraq; they knew they weren't

home. Gee, I wonder how they got access to the rolls of soldiers?

This is despicable.

[Philostopher]

13. So was screwing up ballots in Forest Park

where they left Nader on and left Kerry off the absentee ballots. It was a printing error, you see. They left Kerry off the absentee ballots in a heavily minority-populated suburb of Cincinnati. I'm sure it was just a casual mistake.

Somebody hollered to the BoE as soon as they received their ballot and saw that Kerry wasn't on it, or I don't know how many of them they'd 'accidentally' have sent to Forest Park.

[LeftHander]

18. They have been sending tons of mail...

To all known address...

I get loads of stuff from Bush....the mail campaign is really awful stuff...full of fear and gay hate....

[knitter4democracy]

20. Well, having lived in Cleveland Hts. . . .

I think it's just because the mail sucks. I can't tell you how many things never got to me or got shredded or just plain were lost or whatever when we lived there. We had the worst post office, I swear, so I wouldn't trust that at all.

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. Not so sure this is great news...

While it may allow more voters to vote unimpeded, it may set the stage for post-election litigation, and perhaps even halting election eve tallying of votes.

[w4rma]

8. The Repugs brought the litigation. The judge has, for now, stopped it.

The precedent, in this case, is to set the stage for STOPPING litigation.

[mitchtv]

9. could be the judge could rule against us friday

leaving no time to do anything before the election.

[WLKjr]

11. The challenged registrations in Hardin County are back in

GOP was told to back down ASAP. If I recall correctly they challenged 1400 registrations that were new in this tiny, not very populated county.

[shraby]

14. Probably a lot of people just tossed

the mailing when they got them figuring it was just a political advertisement.

[WLKjr]

22. No, they supposedly had 'wrong addresses' on them

[DeepModem Mom]

15. kick

[Moderator]

16. Kick

:kick:

[lil-petunia]

17. more on this from WaPo

Washington Post - Judge Rebuffs GOP Effort to Contest Voters in Ohio

Any appeal would come too late. no way can this be reversed in two days.

[DeadManInc]

19. Bush Trash

I have been getting a bunch of Repuke trash in the mail here in ohio. I forward it right to the shredder. I am a registered democrat so i don't know why they send me that shit. Oh well it is costing them money, not me. My shredder likes that shit LOL.

[A Brand New World]

21. Me Too! Lots of Bush Trash in the mail.

Everyday it seems like I get 2 different flyers from them. Don't know why. Drives me crazy. The joy of living in Ohio!