Voter Information

In case anyone is search for last minute information on the election for Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH: Smart Voter is the place to go for all needed info.

In case you wonder how I am voting, well here are the highlights:

President/Vice President of the United States
John F. Kerry/John Edwards, Democratic

US House; District 2: Charles W. Sanders, Democratic

US Senate: Eric D. Fingerhut, Democratic

State Representative; District 34: Glen Miller, Democratic

Judge; Supreme Court; starting 1/1/05: Nancy A. Fuerst

Judge; Supreme Court; Unexpired Term: William O'Neill

Commissioner; starting 1/2/05: Todd Portune, Democratic

Commissioner; starting 1/3/05: Eve Bolton, Democratic

Clerk of Courts; County of Hamilton: Martha Good, Democratic

Prosecuting Attorney; County of Hamilton: Fanon Rucker (write-in)

Sheriff; County of Hamilton: None of the Above or Mickey Mouse as a write in

Recorder; County of Hamilton: Steve Brinker, Democratic

Treasurer; County of Hamilton: Bob M. Drake, Democratic

Coroner; County of Hamilton: O'dell M. Owens, Democratic

Issue 1 Proposed Constitutional Amendment Banning Gay Marriage: Fuck No!

Issue 3 Proposed Charter Amendment Repeal of Article XII: Hell YES!

Issue 4 Proposed Charter Amendment Property Tax Repeal: No!!!

Issue 32 Tax Levy-- Cincinnati City School District: Yes

Issue 43 Tax Levy --Drake: Yes

Issue 44 Proposed Tax Levy Hamilton County: Yes

Others I am rooting for:
US House; District 1: Greg Harris, Democratic
State Representative; District 33: Tyrone K. Yates, Democratic
State Senate; District 8: Jeannette Harrison, Democratic
US House; District 4 KY: Nick Clooney Democratic
US Senate - KY: Daniel Mongiardo

Video Vote Vigil

Covington Jim points out a site collecting video and images of disturbances or other irregularities at or around the polls.

No Exit Polls in Ohio?

What is Ken Blackwell doing when he unexpectedly banned all media exit polls from within 100 feet of any polling station? I guess he fears they would challenge voters too or is this just another liberal bias charge against the media? FOX is part of the lawsuit trying to allow exit polling, so the right-wing media is at least in the fray with the rest of the mainstream press.

GOP Challengers From Outside County

Mean Jean Galvin of Make Ohio Blue has seen and reviewed the list of GOP challengers for Hamilton County. His review indicates that white suburbanites are being sent into most black neighborhoods. Also he indicates that the GOP is not sending any challengers to all-white suburbs.

Challengers Being Sworn in at BOE

A source indicates that 5 men were sworn in by Director of Elections John Williams today as Challengers. This took place at the Hamilton County BOE and the men were reported to have a list of individual voters to challenge. The number of voters on the list or the identity of the voters are unknown.

My guess would be that even with the court rulings, Challengers would be permitted at the BOE to challenge voter's eligibility to vote.

Panera WiFi

I think someone in comments said that Panera did not have very good WiFi. I am using it here on Beechmont right not to post this, and it actually works quite well. It might get worse if there were more users, which is likely true for all WiFi connections.

This post has unfortunately not been brought to you by the fine folks at Panera Bread. I eat there all the time and all I ever got out of it, beside good food/drink, was a free coffee mug at the grand opening of a location up in Mason.

Weeks?

Carl Weiser is reporting that provisional votes cannot be counted until November 13th by law. BOE's will be able to review each provisional voter's eligibility status, but can't see how they voted. I would assume absentee ballots are counted as soon after the polls close and after it is determined that they could make the difference in a race. This is going to be ugly.

All Challengers Banned From Ohio Polls

A Federal Judge has ruled voter challengers can not be deployed by any party or group in this year's election. This ruling coming at this late hour just adds more confusion to a confusing situation. I think overall this is the best way to run an election, but the timing is not good to really make it come true for the whole state.

What this does is put an increased burden on the county BOE's who will then get piles of challenges of every voter possible under law, but they were going to get that anyway, so in the big picture, I think this will make the polls go smother. That was after all the purpose. Ken Blackwell should be supporting this ruling. Will the AG try to appeal it today? The Ohio GOP stated in the article that they will appeal.

The mess is beginning to take form. Ground is being set for court challenges come Wednesday.

This story now is the Top Story on Yahoo. It is going to be a new turner.

UPDATE: A second Judge has ruled to ban the challengers.

UPDATE #2: Here is a copy Dlott's ruling (PDF).

Hate in Ohio

Atrios posts on a Salon article that illustrates pure hate from Bush Rally attendees up in Columbus. Did we get any of the same kind of thing from Cincinnati Bush supporters? Anyone saying "We don't want faggots in the White House?"

A Sample of Right-wing Voter Suppression

This is how you try to suppress the vote of non-Republicans.

Now, to be fair, we don't know for sure if this came from a Republican. We will likely never know who actual mailed them. This has the earmarks of Young Republicans everywhere. Kos has more examples.

Axinar's Universe Lays Down the Law

Axinar puts a thumping bigot/racist blogger from Springfield in his place by, well, pointing out that he is a racist and bigot and frankly a teenager who knows next to nothing. As adults we know next to that which is next to nothing, so we are ahead of the game only slightly, but in "Obi Ken's" case that slightness is measured in light years, something far beyond the scale of the Kessel Run. Let us hope this kid can go away to a good state college and grow out of his upbringing.

Edwards In Town On Monday

There are no details but WCPO reports at Dem VP nominee Senator John Edwards will make a stop in Cincinnati tomorrow.

Someone is likely staying at the Cincinnatian tonight; whether it is Edwards or Bush I have no idea. I say this because of the additional security in alley behind the downtown hotel. While at the rally today I observed blocked alleyways next to the building I parked in.

In case you have not figured it out, I did not go to the Bush Rally. I did not want to have to sit with a bunch of right-wing zealots for two plus hours waiting to hear Bush say blah blah blah and then have to fight traffic. Odds are that I would have gotten into the event and would not have had anyone notice me and my lack of cheering or clapping. If I find out Edwards is having a public event I will be there definitely, but at this point I would say it is more of a focused event, not for a mass crowd.

Questions by Vote Challengers

The Enquirer is reporting that these are the questions a voter could face if their vote is challenged at the polls

• Are you a citizen of the United States?
• Are you a native or naturalized citizen?
• Where were you born?
• Have you resided in this state for 30 days immediately preceding this election?
  Where have you resided?
• Please give names of two persons who know your place of residence.
• Have you been absent from this state within the 30 days immediately preceding this election?
• Have you continuously resided outside this state for a period of four years or more?
• Did you, while absent, look upon and regard this state as your home?
• Did you, while absent, vote in any other state?
• Do you now reside in this county?
• Do you now reside in this precinct?
• When you came into this precinct, did you come for a temporary purpose merely or for the purpose of making it your home?
• Are you 18 years of age or more to the best of your knowledge and belief?

These questions differ slightly from the ones the Dayton Daily News reported last week.

Kerry Rally at Fountain Square

Overall Thought: for Cincinnati this was a pretty good rally. I would put the number of people from 500 to 1000, which is really good considering this event received no attention in the local media or PR before hand otherwise. For my first foray into live blogging I will call it success, but I must say that the Wifi on the square leaves a lot to be desired. The speed really was worse than dial-up at many times. The city and CincyBell need to get on the ball and open-up more hotspots around town.

2:55 PM: Roxanne Qualls

Write in Rucker! Write in Rucker! Write in Rucker!

2:50 PM: David Crowley tells us he would never have thought that we would have to worry about voter intimidation in Ohio.

2:45: William O’Neil Running for Supreme Court of Ohio

2:40 PM: David Pepper asks those working the polls to ask their Republican counter part, “Do you know this is a Jim Crow law you are endorsing?”

Glen Miller

Steve Brinker

2:30 PM: “I am not a Myth” so says the crowd responding to Stephanie Jones, daughter of Nathanial Jones

2:20 PM: Tim Burke

2:00 PM: Music is starting up. The rumored speakers are to include Mark Mallory, Charlie Luken, and Roxanne Qualls.


1:45 PM: My first on location live blogging event: Kerry Rally on Fountain Square.

First element: it is taking way to long to log into Cincinnati Bell Wifi, but I was at least able to easily able to connect to the network.

The crowd so far is limited, but very enthusiastic. The funniest thing is seeing the Bush people coming in for the rally at GAP tonight. They all so far have looked like they came right out of West Chester or Anderson and as I sit outside Rock Bottom Brewery they are heading in to eat before they sit and wait 6 hours for Bush to speak.

Democratic Rally Today 2 PM Fountain Square

I plan on doing some live blogging at the Fountain Square event.

Enquirer Picks Miller Over Brinkman

What a difference two years make for the Enquirer with their endorsement of Glen Miller for the 34th District of Ohio House, my district. It is an obvious choice for any sane human being. Brinkman is an extremist ideologue who seems to be more concerned with controlling women's bodies, destroying all levels of government, and providing guns to any nut with a pulse, than with preserving the rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, the rights of the first amendment, or of keeping a basic level of government to protect the poor from having to beg from the powerful corporation just to live.

The change from the Enquirer lies in the fact that they did not list an endorsement for this race back in 2002. I guess it is either more competitive this time around, or when Brinkman pushed a law where people could carry concealed guns in Churches and day care center just may have been the straw to break the blinders off the Enquirer's face.

I join the Enquirer in stating that we must vote for Glen Miller in the 34th.

Maggie Downs Missing From Friday's Enquirer

Yesterday I read Friday's Cincinnati Enquirer online, as I do everyday.

Friday is normally the day everyone can read Maggie Downs' weekly column, but I looked all over the front page. I looked in her archived column section. I looked and looked and looked and looked.

I did not find a column for Friday. I "wonder" why I did not find a column on Friday. I guess the bumper sicker column pissed off some West Chester GOP hacks who swear they tore off every Kerry bumper sticker they saw. From their perspective her count of Kerry stickers must be the result of some kind of, oh I don't know how they put it, "liberal bias?" We all know bias has no place in an opinion column.

Why is the Enquirer trying to silence Maggie? What fear do they have of opinion, and a liberal one at that, in their Metro OPINION columns? There is certainly no shortage of conservatives. I would love to know how often they kill a Bronson column for being too right-wing.

Hot Spots?

A request for anyone out there: Where are the hotspots for WiFi downtown? I know of Hamburger Mary's, but where else can I go at night? I am will to pay, up to a point for it, so I don't need just the free-places. There are several around UC also and Panera Bread and a few fast food places have it too. Anyone else been to any and know of good places to go, with good food or beverages if applicable? I have a new laptop, in case you did not hear me say it 100,000 times over the last week, and I want to try out some remote location blogging.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

An official ticket to the Bush rally at GAP.

I am torn on what I should do. Should I go to the event or not? I want to test out the local GOP staffers who may or may not be on the ball enough to keep me out of the event.

I will try to have a Kerry sticker on as I go in, assuming I go, but not a big one or open to see.

My real plan is to try and talk with some of the protestors and see if that gets me banned from going in.

I got the ticket from a friend who did so fairly easily. He went down to the Cincy Bush HQ and they gave him four tickets. He had to say he was a Bush supporter, but I am sure he at least supports Bush on something remote so as to not make that a lie. He had to gave his name, but did not have to sign anything.

The Enquirer gave its typical puff piece on the event showing people torn between trick-or-treating or going to the Bush event. For the record, any Parents forcing their kid to see Bush instead of trick-or-treating is either a fundamentalist (and extremist) or is just plain cruel. That goes the same for the Dems who bring their kids to protest. I hope every kid there at least was able to have beggar's night tonight instead.

19th Century Enquirer Thinking

I guess the Enquirer Editorial Staff have a concept of time forieng to most living in this century as illustrated by their Groppe endorsements:

She has used technology to counter a rush of refinancing when interest rates fell, and has kept a close eye on her budget.

I guess the 2 months it takes to process a title is good by 1878 standards.