Judge Blasts Ohio's Last Minute Disenfranchisement Directive

[octoberlib]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/09/1169321/federal-judge-not-amused-by-ohio-gop-secretary-of-states-last-minute-disenfranchisement-directive/

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted is fast becoming one of the most despised election officials in the country for his many attempts to restrict early voting and throw out legitimate provisional ballots. He’s also alienating federal judges left and right. After Husted issued a last-minute directive that could invalidate thousands of Ohioans’ votes, US District Judge Algenon Marbley did not bother to hide his impatience with the secretary’s hijinks.
Husted’s directive, which was issued at 7 pm on the Friday before the election, openly defies Ohio state law by shifting the burden of correctly filling in a provisional ballot form from the poll worker to the contested voter. As Andrew Cohen at the Atlantic explains, Judge Marbley had already worked out an agreement that placed the responsibility on poll workers and the state, so a vote would still be counted if the poll worker made an error. Husted’s directive snuck around this agreement, apparently infuriating the judge:
THE COURT: Mr. Epstein, would you agree that voting is the linchpin of our democracy?
[STATE ATTORNEY] MR. EPSTEIN: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: I do too. What concerned me about the 2012-54 directive is that it was filed on a Friday night at 7 p.m. The first thought that came to mind was democracy dies in the dark. So, when you do things like that that seeks to avoid transparency, it appears, then that gives me great pause but even greater concern. So, if anyone I’m going to give additional time to, it’s going to be you, Mr. Epstein, because you have a lot of explaining to do [...] I’m really trying to get to the root of this, and I don’t want to see democracy die in the darkness on my watch, especially with voting. You know I have a special place for voting.

Ohio’s attorney was unable to point to any legal justification for ignoring the law and shifting the burden to the voter. Marbley exploded:
THE COURT: So show me where it is. Show me where it’s meant. Show me the legislative history. Show me the facts that the secretary used to make the decision to change this directive at seven o’clock on a Friday night on the eve of an election. I want to see it, and I want to see it now. Show it to me.
MR. EPSTEIN: Your Honor, I have no legislative history to present to the Court.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Great post! K&R

[bottomofthehill]

2. It never pays to piss off the Judge.

Thank God this Judge cares about Democracy.

The first thought that came to mind was democracy dies in the dark. That is what happened in Florida in 2000 democracy died the dark.

[socialindependocrat]

3. Hearing this judge get so upset relieves some of my anxiety over this issue

Now, if we can get this guy on the supreme court maybe we can start to
get those morons straightened out!

This country is such a mess.

Plug one leak in the dike and 3 more spring forth

[colsohlibgal]

4. US Voting

This was a prime discussion segment on "Up With Chris Hayes" this morning, and the consensus was that our voting system is ridiculous. Especially so when we chide other countries on how they vote.

It's a mess and there are more than 30,000 jurisdictions out there.

Why isn't it centralized, and why, in this day and age, is the burden on the person to register when the US government can do it? Chris Hayes correctly made the point that they sure could locate every 18 year old male in the draft days.

Look at 2000. The Supreme Court 5-4 coup stopped the voting. Not because it would cause harm to the US, but because it would cause harm to Dubya. The New York Times led a group of newspapers in paying for the recount to go on. The end result was that under any chad situation Al Gore really won Florida. That is not even counting the trick ballot in that one community of mostly retired Jewish voters where most of them were trying to vote for Gore but voted for Pat Buchanan instead. Or all the people thrown off the rolls because they had a similar name to felons who had been scrubbed.

This all happened in a state where Bush's brother was governor and his state campaign director was the head state voting czar. Totally improper.

Think about where we might be now if Al Gore, not Bush, was sworn in January 2001, as he should have been. It's tragic how this played out, in a lot of ways, one of them is a lot of young people would be alive and whole now instead of dead or maimed physically and/or mentally. Decisions matter and this one more than most.

So we need to get this right. Obama, in his victory speech, gave us the impression he know this. I hope he's serious.

[rhett o rick]

5. If he broke the law, will he be charged with such? nm

[SDjack]

6. Useless waste of effort UNLESS he is charged and held for trial in a timely manner

to stop his criminal acts.

[Spirochete]

7. Time to send that assbag to jail

the first step of many in the process to clean up the election system.

[democrattotheend]

8. Glad this is still getting attention

Even though Obama won Ohio, I still think it's important to take action to rectify some of the problems there. I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, but I think Obama's margin there was suspiciously small compared to initial exit polls (which are not always accurate until reweighted, but still a little fishy) and compared to pre-election polling. I hope there is an investigation, because I think it's not outside the realm of possibility that machines were tampered with. Even if that did not happen, there were a lot of disenfranchisement problems that need to be fixed before the next election, which could be close enough to steal.

[TahitiNut]

9. If I were on the bench, I'd hold him in contempt of court.

That fucktard needs to pay dearly.

[DirtyDawg]

10. You want...

...to say to these pissants...or to ask them...'What are you people trying to do? Just where did you get your values? Would your parents be proud that you're standing before a Federal Judge and just making shit up in an effort to keep American citizens from exercising their Constitutional right to vote? Who do you take your orders from? Your chicken-shit SOS who's afraid to show his face here? Your lame-ass Governor who's sure to be serving in the last public office he'll ever hold? The rightwing Republican Party that seems to think that 'All's fair in love, war and effin with Democrats?' Regardless, you ain't gettin away with it and if you don't wish to spend some time in the court's jail. You better get you butt back home and make sure these people get to vote...pronto.'

[LisaL]

11. So what is going to be done about it?

Because OH haven't even started counting provisional ballots yet.