Latest Republican strategy for Ohio

[POAS]

Delay, Delay, Delay

Word is spreading of an effort that will be mounted on election day to challenge voters at the polls. The apparent aim will not be to stop a specific voter from voting but to delay the process, create long lines and thereby discourage voters in strongly Democratic areas.

Volunteers in large numbers to monitor and report activities on election day will be needed as well as attorneys to confront the issues that will arise immediately and nip any dirty tricks in the bud.

[aquart]

1. The Republicans are going to try and stop voters from voting?

Demand an answer from them. DEMAND IT. Ask, are you so sure this state will vote against you that you will try to prevent voting as much as possible?

Is there a worse crime in a democracy?

[napi21]

2. There's laws that prohibit this kind of activity!

You aren't allowed to display partisan signs, literature, or PEOPLE!

We have people at our polling places that are there to prevent that. What's with the rest of them?

[Grillymom]

4. Actually, the way I understand it

the law allows for poll workers to question voters to make sure they are who they say the are and to verify that they are registered to vote. They are merely trying to create delays.

[Ruby Romaine]

5. but that's not the same as people who approach voters outside

of the polls & ask for ID etc.(completely illegal!)
sometime they are wearing rent a cop outfits
this is a popular repuke voter intimidation tactic
Justice Rhenquist did this in the 1960's-prevented voters from going to the polls.

(snip)
During the Senate hearings on William Rehnquist’s nomination as Chief Justice, in 1986, a number of witnesses testified that in the early nineteen-sixties Rehnquist, then a lawyer in private practice and a Republican political activist, had harassed black and Latino voters at Arizona polling places, demanding to know if they were “qualified to vote.” (Rehnquist denied doing so.) In the 1981 governor’s race in New Jersey, the Republican Party hired armed off-duty police officers to work in a self-described National Ballot Security Task Force, which posted signs at polling places in minority neighborhoods reading, “Warning, This Area Is Being Patrolled by the National Ballot Security Task Force. It Is a Crime to Falsify a Ballot or to Violate Election Laws.”

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040920fa_fact

[MostlyLurks]

6. Here's an article that mentions it:

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/953

<much snippage>

"But Damschroder points out that Ohio’s law on poll watching is “archaic,” with all challenges over voter eligibility being decided on the spot at the local voting precinct by election officials hired for Election Day only. The only people allowed to challenge under Ohio law are those certified eleven days in advance by political parties or a slate of five candidates. The certified challengers must produce an ID and swear an oath, according to Damschroder. Add to this the fact that the HAVA bill allows for challenges to first-time voters to produce state photo IDs.

The Free Press has learned that Franklin County election officials are considering a wide contingent of actions including arrests if the certified election challengers attempt to challenge all new voters and hold up the voting process. The election may rest on how many Democratic election challengers show up to advocate for urban center new voters versus how many Republican election challengers show up to question new voters."

<snip>

Sounds like these will be partisan-hired hacks who are, as the original post stated, interested in simply holding up the process.

Mostly

[zuzu98]

3. 1-866-OUR-VOTE

Make sure this number is prominently displayed at your local HQ, and depending on your local elections laws, at or near polling places.

<snip>
That's a hot line set up by the Election Protection Coalition, a group that was formed to identify and stamp out attempts to disenfranchise voters....

On Election Day in November, the coalition expects to have as many as 25,000 volunteers, including 5,000 lawyers, available to provide assistance to voters who encounter irregularities or feel they are not being treated fairly at the polls. Voters who call the hot line will immediately be put in touch with volunteers in their local area.

The coalition is also urging people to call the hot line now if they are aware of efforts to discourage or prevent people from voting.

Among the groups included in the Election Protection Coalition are the People for the American Way Foundation, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the League of Women Voters, the N.A.A.C.P., the American Civil Liberties Union and the Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy group in Washington.
<snip>

from www.truthout.org

[mongo]

8. I will be volunteering for these folks on election day

as a poll monitor somewhere in Columbus.

I am hoping for a boring day.... but I will be there with complaint forms, and a cell phone line to a volunteer lawyer if the need arises.

[CindyDale]

7. You Can Do It!

Well, I'll bet that backfires. Democrats will always outwait the Republicans.

Here, in Pinellas County, Florida, everyone is really fired up to go vote. The country is counting on Ohio and Florida.

Cindy