Early Voting hours in Ohio: More for GOP, less for Dem.

[SirNitram]

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Extended hours on nights and weekends that made it easier for nearly 9,000 voters to cast early ballots in the 2008 presidential race at the Hamilton County Board of Elections may not be repeated this year because of Republican opposition.

Across Ohio, that is part of a developing pattern in which extra pre-election voting hours may be denied to voters in large urban counties – most of which traditionally vote Democratic – even as extended hours will be available in some smaller counties with a strong Republican slant.

The issue has emerged amid continuing questions over provisional ballots – cast when there are questions over a voter’s registration, and the source of controversy in past elections – and the Ohio legislature’s failure over the past four years to amend the state’s voting laws to address problems.

A showdown over the extra voting hours is expected at the Hamilton County Board of Elections next week.

If the debate plays out as it has in Ohio’s other major urban counties, it likely will result in a 2-2 tie vote by board members, with Democrats in favor of extending voting hours and Republicans opposed.

That would place the question before Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who over the past several weeks has consistently sided with GOP elections board members elsewhere in casting tie-breaking votes against extending voting hours during the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election.
Cost control, or blocking the vote?

Although Husted has cited cost concerns, Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman Tim Burke views the move as having more to do with politics than budgets.

“The Republicans remember those long lines outside boards of elections last time in the evening and on weekends,” Burke said. “The lines were overwhelmingly African-American, and it’s pretty obvious that the people were predominantly – very predominantly – Obama voters. The Republicans don’t want that to happen again. It’s that simple.”

Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party and, like Burke, an elections board member, said he is “still assessing the question” of whether to extend voting hours at the board’s Downtown office.

Burke, however, said that Triantafilou has made it clear in their discussions that he is strongly leaning against approving extra hours when the matter is debated Aug. 16.

“I know Tim’s going to try to club me over the head on this and say it’s voter suppression,” Triantafilou said. “But I just reject that.

“This year every registered voter will get an absentee ballot application, so people can vote 24/7 from home for weeks before the election. There will be plenty of hours to vote early. It’s just not true we’re trying to restrict access.”

That, however, is what could happen throughout Ohio if elections boards do not once again extend voting hours during October and early November, Democrats and voting-rights groups argue.

In 2008, 8,839 Hamilton County voters cast ballots during the board’s extended hours on weeknights and Saturday mornings, Burke said.

“The question you have to ask is, why wouldn’t you want to make it easy for people to vote?” Burke said. “The extra hours are more convenient for a lot of folks, especially blue-collar workers and those with 8-to-5 jobs.”

From Burke’s perspective, the effort to block extra voting hours is an extension of a partisan strategy that began last year when the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed legislation preventing county elections boards from keeping polling places open during the final three days before Election Day.

Four years ago, about 93,000 votes were cast statewide on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before the election, said Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern. In Hamilton County, nearly 1,300 voters cast ballots on those three days, according to Caleb Faux, Burke’s fellow Democrat on the local elections board.

The Obama campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party last month filed a federal lawsuit seeking to restore those three days.

While awaiting a decision in that case, some of Ohio’s 88 county elections boards have extended – or tried to extend – pre-Election Day voting hours.
Deadlocks work in GOP's favor

Since mid-July, plans to broaden early voting have produced deadlocks in Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Franklin (Columbus) and Summit (Akron) counties.

In each case, Husted broke the tie by directing the respective boards not to add extra hours.

“I cannot create unequal access from one county board to another, and I must also keep in mind the resources available to each county,” Husted said last week in a letter to the Franklin County board.

“The reality is that local boards are operating under tight budget constraints on a day-to-day basis under their normal business hours. There is sufficient time already available during the Franklin County Board’s regular business hours for the casting of absentee voters’ ballots in person.”

However, there likely will be “unequal access” throughout Ohio this fall.

In Southwest Ohio, elections boards in traditionally Republican Butler and Warren counties have approved special night and weekend voting hours from early October through Nov. 1.

Because Democrats did not oppose the idea, there were no tie votes to submit to Husted, leaving those early voting plans intact.

Husted spokesman Matt McClellan said the secretary of state will not intervene in those counties.

“Local boards of elections can set their own hours for early voting if they can agree on it,” McClellan said.

Only in cases where boards’ tie votes give him a decisive voice, McClellan added, will Husted move to block extra voting hours.

The counties where Husted has joined with other Republicans to deny expanded early voting strongly backed then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008, while most of those where the extra hours will stand heavily supported GOP nominee John McCain.

Cuyahoga County, for example, went for Obama by a more than 2-to-1 ratio, and the Democrat’s edge was about 3-to-2 in both Franklin and Summit counties. In contrast, McCain outpolled Obama 2-to-1 in Warren County and 3-to-2 in Butler County.

“It’s difficult not to see that as a deliberate strategy to suppress the votes of certain voters,” Burke said.

Triantafilou, though, dismisses that argument.

“You can’t say people who want to vote early won’t have that chance,” he said. “There’s no conspiracy here.”

Of course it's not a conspiracy. I beleive, as defined, a conspiracy is hidden. This is in front of everybody, showing not only cheating, but the arrogance that no one dare question them cheating.

[Lord MJ]

Keep a running tally of the number of voters who could be denied the vote between this, voter ID laws, and the clearly partisan early vote provisions mentioned in the other thread.

If GOP wins the election and the margin is within that threshold. Refuse the accept or recognize the outcome of the vote in Ohio. It's that simple. If it takes an all out constitutional crisis after the election to rectify this issue, then so be it.

If I was the Obama admin, I would be making contingency plans now. This is the 2000 Florida issue, but 100 times worse. That incident wasn't the result of malfeasance, rather incompetence (and Bush still probably would have one after any recount). This episode is a direct attempt to manipulate the vote.