With Three Spots For Ohio And Only Eight For The Other 49 States, It Hardly Seems Fair!
By Winter Patriot on 9/4/2006, 3:51pm PT  

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Mother Jones has the skinny on eleven of the worst places to try and vote in America, courtesy of Sasha Abramsky:

Just Try Voting Here: 11 of America's worst places to cast a ballot (or try)

I won't spoil the top ten for you. But here's what Sasha says about number eleven:

#11 Politicos in Charge
Ohio

Election activists don't have Florida's Katherine Harris to kick around anymore, but in a system where most states' top election officials are also politicians, there's no shortage of other nominees for worst secretary of state. The current leading candidate must be Ohio's Ken Blackwell, now a Republican candidate for governor, who seems intent on making sure as few Ohioans as possible are registered to vote. In 2004 Blackwell achieved national notoriety when he announced that his office would accept only voter-registration forms printed on paper of at least 80-pound weight. Blackwell had to back off that requirement, but a slew of other restrictions remain, including one under which door-to-door registration workers must sign in with county officials, and another requiring them to personally mail in the registration forms they collect. "The constant promulgation of rules and regulations keeps members of the Board of Elections jumping around like cats on a hot tin roof," says Chris Link, executive director of the Ohio ACLU. "And this essentially hurts Democrats. Who is newly registering? People who've just become citizens, young people who've just gotten the right to vote." Meanwhile, Blackwell's office has done nothing to inform voters that come Election Day this year, they will have to bring photo IDs to the polls --- guaranteeing that tens of thousands of mostly Democratic voters will be turned away.

Please read the whole article.

CONFESSION: This piece was originally blogged with an incorrect heading which claimed "Ohio didn't even make the top ten" ... in fact Ohio claimed two of the top four spots. So that was a big FUMBLE! by your nearly frozen host, spotted by Lorraine Bieber. My apologies.

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Article Categories: Election Reform, Election 2006