Ohio Politics

by **Woodruff** on Wed Aug 15, 2012 4:15 pm

Wow...if true, this is some dirty shit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/overt-discrimination-in-ohio.html?_r=2&hp

by **rockfist** on Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:23 pm

The reason they gave to stop the early voting in the three days before the election is so they can mark the people who have voted early off so they do not vote twice...it makes sense in theory.

by **Neato Missile** on Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:40 pm

Yeah, I'm an Ohioan and this has been a hot issue among politically-minded folks I know. I try not to jump on the "voter suppression" bandwagon every time things of this nature occur, but the evidence is fairly clear-cut in this case. This part is especially damning:

NYT wrote:County election boards in Ohio, a closely contested swing state, are evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. In counties likely to vote for President Obama, Republicans have voted against the extended hours, and [Ohio Secretary of State] Mr. Husted has broken the tie in their favor. (He said the counties couldn’t afford the long hours.) In counties likely to vote for Mitt Romney, Republicans have not objected to the extended hours.

The secretary of state is going around making sure that rural/republican districts get extended voting hours, while failing to extend the same courtesy to urban/democratic districts. It's not illegal, but it's certainly not very ethical.

by **patrickaa317** on Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:41 pm

Update: On Wednesday afternoon, Jon Husted, the Ohio Secretary of State, announced that all Ohio counties would follow a uniform early-voting policy. The policy would extend early-voting hours to 7 p.m. on weekdays during the last two weeks before the election, though all early voting is banned during the final three days of the campaign.

No further dirty shit going on as all counties now have uniform policy. Definitely was shady prior to that though.

by **Woodruff** on Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:21 pm

patrickaa317 wrote:
Update: On Wednesday afternoon, Jon Husted, the Ohio Secretary of State, announced that all Ohio counties would follow a uniform early-voting policy. The policy would extend early-voting hours to 7 p.m. on weekdays during the last two weeks before the election, though all early voting is banned during the final three days of the campaign.

No further dirty shit going on as all counties now have uniform policy. Definitely was shady prior to that though.

That is excellent news - thanks for the update.

(Hopefully, the update wasn't already there and I just missed it...)

by **patrickaa317** on Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:49 pm

Woodruff wrote:
patrickaa317 wrote:
Update: On Wednesday afternoon, Jon Husted, the Ohio Secretary of State, announced that all Ohio counties would follow a uniform early-voting policy. The policy would extend early-voting hours to 7 p.m. on weekdays during the last two weeks before the election, though all early voting is banned during the final three days of the campaign.

No further dirty shit going on as all counties now have uniform policy. Definitely was shady prior to that though.

That is excellent news - thanks for the update.

(Hopefully, the update wasn't already there and I just missed it...)

I doubt you missed it; typically it just takes a little coverage and publicity for someone to change their mind.