NYT: Ohio Court Battles Flare Over Challenges to Voters (10/29, not over)

[DeepModem Mom]

Ohio Court Battles Flare Over Challenges to Voters
By JAMES DAO and FORD FESSENDEN

Published: October 29, 2004


COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 28 - Ohio was a confusing patchwork of litigation and election board hearings on Thursday as Democratic and Republican lawyers waged courtroom battles from Cincinnati to Newark, N.J., over the rights of tens of thousands of Ohioans to cast ballots next week.

At the heart of the legal jousting was an effort by the state Republican Party to challenge 23,000 new voter registrations in 62 counties. On Wednesday, Judge Susan J. Dlott of Federal District Court in Cincinnati temporarily blocked hearings for those challenges in six counties, including the state's two largest, Cuyahoga and Franklin.

But on Thursday, Attorney General Jim Petro, a Republican, and the Franklin County Board of Elections appealed Judge Dlott's order, seeking to proceed with hearings on Friday and through the weekend.

Election officials in Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland and where 17,000 challenges have been filed, said they might have run out of time to hold hearings. But officials in Franklin County, which includes Columbus, said they might proceed with hearings on Sunday if their appeal succeeds. Many smaller counties were also proceeding with plans for hearings.

Several counties that were not covered by Judge Dlott's order held hearings on Thursday....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/29/politics/campaign/29ohio.html

[Petrushka]

1. Voters challenged in Jefferson County

Last night, on TV-9 out of Steubenville, Ohio, there was a news report about voters' registrations challenged in Jefferson Count--including footage of a Board of Elections hearing yesterday. Turned out that the person making the challenge was identified as a Republican who didn't even bother to show up for the hearing! In any case, it doesn't look like WTOV-9 has up-dated its online story yet; but, here's the URL where you'll find a list of the voters whose registrations were challenged . . . as well as the name of the person who caused the confusion. (There oughta be a law that at least fines anyone who makes a challenge like this and, then, doesn't have the cajones to show up at the hearing!)

http://www.wtov9.com/news/3865776/detail.html

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thanks for this info, Petrushka -- and welcome to DU --

[Petrushka]

6. Thanks for the welcome!

[maxrandb]

3. I'm Military and voted absentee in Franklin County.

Anyway I can find out if my ballot is challenged?

[Petrushka]

7. URL for Franklin County OH Board of Elections:

http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/boe/content/voter.html

[maxrandb]

8. thanks n/t

[ticapnews]

4. Who is Edward A. Pankus?

He is apparently the VP of Commercialization at Cercorp (http://www.cercorp.com)

The one reference a quick Google search turned up was this posting:
http://www.mikehersh.com/What_is_truth.shtml

What is truth?
By Ed Pankus
Mar 25, 2003

Ed Pankus writes: What is truth?

I love your site. It's so full of truth that I have to scrape my shoes off before leaving my computer screen. I figured it out, your just parodying the leftist socialists agenda for our enjoyment, right? Your creative writing is humorous and goes beyond the pale to the ridiculous that you may actually have something of value here for all Americans to enjoy.

Continued success and keep writing. It helps so many of us see the weak foundation of a dying ideology and draws a distinct line in the sand between our everyday lives in a free country while exposing the desire of progressive liberals to lead us to complete chaos and the destruction of national sovereignty under the guise of greater security...No one understands and writes this propaganda better than you Michael.

Ed Pankus
Vice President
Commercialization
[e-mail]

If you want to telephone Mr. Pankus to express your opinion of his challenging all those voters, and then not showing up at the hearing, the contact information for Cercorp is:

Cercorp Initiatives Inc.
The Innovation Center
2230 Sunset Blvd.
Steubenville, Ohio 43952

Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks, ticapnews -- good work, and welcome to DU!