Is Ken Blackwell going to disqualify his Dem opposition?

[Marr]

Stephanie Miller mentioned this on her show, but I've heard no other reference to it anywhere.

Apparently Ken Blackwell is way behind in the race for the Ohio governorship, and clearly hasn't got a chance of winning fairly. So the Republicans on the state election board (IIRC) are trying to disqualify the Democratic candidate *now*, by using some technicality about his registered residence- something about saying he claimed an out of state residence as primary residence or something- some kind of clerical goof.

If I heard her correctly, she said the move to disqualify the Democrat was supported by the two Republicans on the election board, and opposed by the board's two Democrats, so it's a tie. But Blackwell is the head of the election commission, so he gets to break the tie... allowing him to disqualify his own opponent.

Do I have this right? Anyone else heard anything about this?

[sakabatou]

1. If he does

He shall be forever known as the scumiest politician of Ohio that 'batou has ever known.

[peace13]

5. He is that already

or at least tied for the position.

[Kittycat]

2. I read something about this the other day

but haven't heard anything more since.

[yourout]

3. The Pukes do not know the meaning of "Conflict of Interest"

only Interest of Conflict.

[Ken Burch]

4. Would the Democrats be allowed to replace their candidate

Or would Blackwell simply win by default?

It would be good to get community groups and unions together in Ohio to discuss alternative responses should Blackwell stage an electoral coup in this manner.

[KingFlorez]

6. If he does that, they'll all be doomed

He's desperate, but not crazy. If he disqualifies Strickland, it gives the Democrats an instant talking point and the GOP bad headlines.

[ruiner4u]

7. its kind of up in the air right now...

Im in ohio and have been following this the last few days... sadly, its not getting any local media attention.. Blackwell deferred the decision to his aide but no decision has been made.

[Taoschick]

10. The aide

Sent it back to the county and said they hadn't done a proper investigation.

This isn't to disqualify him for the governors race, it's to keep him from voting since they claim his registered address isn't his actual residence.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/15783793.htm

[ComerPerro]

8. We are soon going to reach a point

where Republicans ignore election results and swear in whoever the hell they want.

[alfredo]

19. they did that in Kentucky. The Republican candidate was a

resident of Indiana and was not allowed to run for public office in Ky. The Rep was disqualified, but the Senate president refused to seat the Democrat. He gave the seat to the woman from Indiana. The courts threw out the results so that district has no state senator.

[seriousstan]

9. Here it is blow by blow......

http://www.morningjournalnews.com/News/articles.asp?articleID=4013

[zbdent]

11. Blackwell has handed it off to an underling

(with a wink, and a comment about how his job could become a living hell if he let Blackwell stay on the ballot), so he can "claim" that he's not influencing the issue ...

Now, if the ruling is that Strickland did something wrong, you can bet your ass that you would have the quickest court action in convicting Strickland of voter fraud and removing him from being able to run for office, and therefore taking any votes for him off the official results.

If they can't get it before the election, and Blackwell loses by a landslide, they would probably still rush through legislation invalidating his win, and therefore would toss the election into chaos.

Face it folks, this is not about whether Strickland should be voting in one district or the other ... they're setting up to try to make Strickland unable to hold public office in any way, shape or form. However, the Repukes allowed the state laws to be ignored so that a Repuke candidate who failed in the primary could run for a seat in the election ... which was made the law so that Paul Hackett couldn't run for a different office ...

[OzarkDem]

12. Not good enough

Even an underling has an obvious conflict of interest here. Their job depends on keeping Blackwell happy.

Here's hoping Ted files a lawsuit against them.

[OzarkDem]

13. Its an old Ohio GOP trick

they used it successfully in our little town when Dems were elected to city council seats or mayor. All three times, when Dems won, they took legal action to prevent them from taking office, based on some small, vague technicality.

One example was a school teacher who won a city council seat and was challenged because he was a "public employee". After 3 years and tens of thousands in legal expenses, the guy finally gave up. He probably would have won eventually, but who can afford those kinds of legal fees for a seat on city council, which pays about $3,000 a year?

Another time, a candidate for mayor, who was a retired county worker, lost his part time job as school crossing guard for challenging the mayor because she brought GOP Nazi Glenn Beck to the town for the 4th of July celebration.

Fucking GOP, I hate their criminal guts.

[zbdent]

15. Oops, caught my own error

when I said that his job could become a living hell if he let BLACKWELL stay ... meant Strickland ...

[WI_DEM]

14. it's the only way these guys can "win" is to cheat!

[madinmaryland]

16. More from the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/17tues1.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fEditorials

edited to add:
Voters in Ohio can be forgiven if they feel they have been beamed out of the Midwest and dropped into a third-world autocracy. The latest news from the state’s governor’s race is that the Republican nominee, Kenneth Blackwell, who is also the Ohio secretary of state, could rule that his opponent is ineligible to run because of a technicality. We’d like to think that his office would not ultimately do that, or that if it did, such a ruling would not be allowed to stand. But the mere fact that an elected official and political candidate has the authority to toss his opponent out of a race is further evidence of a serious flaw in our democracy.

Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee, is leading Mr. Blackwell by as much as 28 points, according to one recent poll. In their panic, some Blackwell supporters have hit on the idea of trying to prevent the election from occurring. One of them filed a complaint alleging that Mr. Strickland, who is a member of Congress, does not live in the apartment where he is registered to vote. Mr. Strickland owns a condominium in another part of Ohio, and the complaint alleges that he actually lives there. If Mr. Strickland was not a qualified voter, he would be prohibited from running for governor.

The complaint itself is without merit. No one disputes that Mr. Strickland lives in Ohio, or that he is registered. The only issue is which of his two homes he chose to register from, and the law gives voters with multiple homes broad discretion in choosing among them.

What is more interesting, and troubling, is the way the complaint is proceeding. The county board that heard it broke down 2 to 2, on party lines, about whether to hold a hearing. In the case of a tie vote at the county level, complaints like these get forwarded to the secretary of state’s office to be resolved. Mr. Blackwell says he has designated his assistant secretary to handle duties that could conflict with his candidacy. But passing these matters on to a subordinate who is a political ally and owes his job to the candidate hardly removes the conflict.

..snip

[Rosemary2205]

17. K&R

[undeterred]

18. any more info on this?

[DenaliDemocrat]

20. YES

Thom Hartman just had on his radio station.

Kenneth Blackwell has disqualified 1.2 MILLION voters in the state of Ohio, correct that 1.2 million DEMOCRATIC VOTERS!!!


Alert the press.

this is Rove's strategy

[Outdoordude01]

21. If he does

It might be enough to wake up the whole country

[tnlefty]

22. Welcome to DU, Outdoordude01!

:hi:

[Outdoordude01]

23. Thanks

I'm a more moderate/independent politically but now I am very liberal............Voted for Bush once (I apologise)

[ncteechur]

24. If Blackwell were to do this, could Ohioans recall him(Blackwell)?