Blackwell Asks AG To Bar Challengers From Polls

In yet another surprise move Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has asked Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to ban all challengers from the polls on Tuesday. Blackwell lacks the authority to do so and short of a change in the law, I don't see what can prevent them, short of the Governor using some type of emergency power.

The lawsuit that caused problems with challengers took on a nasty reality when Democrats reported that 250 of the 251 precincts the local GOP registered challengers with were in predominatly Black areas.

Republicans also submitted a list of 251 other precincts where they may put challengers. Of those, county Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke said 250 are majority-black precincts.

I guess I will not see anyone in Cincinnati 1K. I am going to try and look up the possible precincts they could be targeting. It could just most of the City or it could pick out specific places to try and keep minority votes down.

Halt of GOP Pre-Emptive Challenges Upheld

To my surprise the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that the pre-emptive voter challenges can't go on before the election.

The real question about these challenges rests on how these people were identified as registrations to challenge. In the Akron area it appears that the reasons were at best sloppy and at worst partisan targeting.

CiN Weekly One Year Later

CiN Weekly is one year old and wants you know it. Well, what do people think of it after they have lived through 52 weeks of it?

I myself can say it a nice light publication and objectively speaking it serves its purpose. CityBeat is still better as publication, but CiN adds a CNN morning show style cultural feel, which is at least hipper than the Today Show. I hate to say it but there is a market for CiN. Think of CiN as Starbucks to CityBeat's Kaldi's.

HypoSpeak Challenges Ohio Reporters

Hypothetically Speaking is asking if you, a professional journalist, have the guts to seek out the alleged fraud the GOP is claiming. $100.00 American Dollars await the first reporter "who can document that 'massive and systematic voter fraud' has been conducted by pro-Kerry forces in this campaign." There are rules so have a look and take your best shot.

Ohio AG Carrying GOP Water?

The Ohio Attorney General is reportedly appealing the federal court order halting BOE hearings on voter registration challenges. Will this do any good? Well if the Conservatives on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals here in Cincinnati get their way, they will be having hearings the second they can overrule the lower court order.

Shine a Light on the Vote Challengers

Covington Jim has put forth an idea of capturing a photograph of vote challengers at each precinct, forever documenting who is going to be trying to suppress the votes. Now, there are going to be both Dems and GOP challengers, but only the GOP have stated they will challenge votes. Dems here in Ohio have stated they will not challenge votes at the poll.

I am willing to snap a photo at my poll station, but I doubt they will have anyone there, since I live in a GOP area. What I think is more interesting is to see the face of those challenging votes in mostly black precincts. I don't know if you have to be registered in the precinct to be a challenger in that precinct or not, but if not I expect some very white faces to be in OTR, the West End, Walnut Hills and Avondale challenging voters.

I will accept some photos and post them, but I would want some verification of who you are, your polling location, and verification that this was taken on Nov. 2nd. I will not be able to post all of them.

If some enterprising young person (or old person) out there wants to set up a website to accept and display this collection, I would be happy to promote it.

REM at the Taft

Did anyone see REM at the Taft last night? I did not go, so I would not mind a review, and maybe some without the politics. I wished the Post could have kept it to the music, but this was a political concert, so I guess I can't get my music separated. It would have been better to have a political story on the event and then a music story.