Ohio voter purge!!? - Democratic Underground

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Sun Oct-22-06 12:36 PM
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Ohio voter purge!!?

Original Content at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_rob_kall_061018_ohio_lawsuit_to_rein.htm

October 18, 2006
Ohio Lawsuit to Reinstate hundreds of thousands of Purged Democratic
Voters to be Filed Fri or Monday

By Rob Kall
Ohio voting rights activist and attorney, Bob Fitrakis, says the Ohio
elections may have already been won, responding to reports of massive
voter purges in Democratic precincts.

Dr. Fitrakis, told OpEdNews, "Essentially, by purging these rolls, the
Republicans, by shrinking the electorate, have already won in Ohio. If
they can't win, which is what the polls show among registered voters,
the way to win is to use their nuclear option-- to target black
voters, young voters and the working poor-- by purging them so they
can't vote.

Reports indicate that starting as early as shortly after the 2004
presidential elections, but particularly recently, hundreds of
thousands of voters-- mostly urban apartment dwellers (likely black)
and students-- who are primarily Democratic-- were sent notifications
that they would be purged from the eligible voter lists if they did
not respond the letter. But, reportedly, the letter was designed to be
easily overlooked, perhaps treated as junk mail. Failure to send in a
response caused the voter to be removed from the voting roll.

Fitrakis observes, "They aren't challenging voter eligibility in
Republican areas. This is coming from the republican party. They're
not targeting their own base.

"If it follows the pattern from 2004, they will have purged heavily
Democratic areas.THey will challenge high performance democratic
precincts."

According to Fitrakis, HAVA, the Help America Vote Act, requires
centrally maintained voter records, which would probably have been
kept by secretary of state Ken Blackwell. Fitrack theorizes, that the
voter records w ere "probably purged from the secretary of state's
office, because HAVA mandates a centrally located database. But the
letters would have gone out from the separate county boards of
election."

This is part of the challenge. It may be necessary to actually deal
with each of the 88 counties.

Fitrakis says, "We're up against 88 county prosecutors. That's what
they've been doing for two years. it's been killing us. They say we
have to get the records from the county-- you literally have to fax
phone or show up to literally demand these records."

OpEdNews asked Bob Fitrakis, "What can be done?" "What can voting
integrity activists do?" What can the Democratic party do?

Fitrakis replied, "We're going to try desperately to get to the bottom
of this and try on Friday to get an injuction-- Monday, at the latest.

We asked, "Is there any chance that this can be turned around."

"Yes, A federal judge can issue an order to rein state all the purged
voters." says Fitrakis.

According to Fitrakis, the letters were sent out and purges timed, so
voters could not get their voting eligibility status reinstated,
because the voting registration period just ended. Worse, there was no
reason to purge the voters, which is usually reserved for people who
have died or moved out of state. They should have been moved to
inactive status.