that he wanted the ohio lawsuit dismissed?
and it was finally thrown out august 29th?
"Judge dismisses lawsuit filed over long election lines
JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A federal judge has dismissed an Election Day lawsuit filed by the Ohio Democratic Party that sought paper ballots for people waiting in long lines at polling places Nov. 2.
The party wanted the lawsuit to be thrown out once it became clear President Bush won re-election, but Republican state leaders kept the lawsuit alive to try to get the judge to rule the election did not violate voters' constitutional rights.
Democrats wanted the extra ballots so that everyone who wanted to vote could do so. They feared frustrated voters would not endure the long wait.
While the Democrats dropped the lawsuit, an activist lawyer said he's considering filing his own lawsuit alleging discrimination.
Lawyer Cliff Arnebeck believes that a shortage of voting machines in predominantly Democratic precincts and vote-switching at boards of elections in GOP-dominated counties could have deprived Democrat John Kerry of enough votes to cost him the election. Bush won Ohio by about 118,000 votes.
Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican and Ohio's chief elections official, has long denied any wrongdoing at the state or county level.
U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley's ruling Friday said the election results and the Democrats' desire to drop the case made the matter moot. The state has not decided if it will appeal Marbley's ruling, said Kim Norris, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jim Petro.
Petro wanted the court to ensure that blacks and other minorities, whose precincts had a good share of the long lines, were not subjected to discrimination.
The Ohio Republican Party took Petro's side in the case but will not seek an appeal, GOP lawyer William Todd said. "It was not a case we had any long term issues in," he said.
The state still faces a challenge to the recount of the election filed by the candidates of the Green and Libertarian parties that is pending in U.S. District Court in Toledo.
Some voters had to wait in line more than seven hours to vote, particularly at a polling place at Kenyon College in Knox County. Waits of three hours or more were typical at some precincts in Columbus in Franklin County. Those two counties were the targets of the Democrats' lawsuit.
Blackwell refused to allow people waiting in lines to mark their choices on a paper ballot for elections workers to enter into electronic voting machines later. Such ballots are illegal, he said.
After the election in Ohio, whose 20 electoral votes gave Republican Bush an insurmountable nationwide lead over Kerry, the Democratic Party asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit. However, Attorney General Jim Petro asked for the chance to argue the election was conducted fairly.
Blackwell, the defendant in the case, did not support Petro's plan. Marbley said he did not agree to Petro's request to consider the election's fairness because Petro was not representing the defendant's wishes.
Gabrielle Williamson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said the party was happy to see the case dropped but hoped the long lines taught election officials a lesson.
"We'll be watching because we're not going to have a repeat of Election Day 2004," Williamson said. "
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/12506799.htmoooh yeah, we'll be watching....with a blanket over our heads and hands over our eyes:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:
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