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Fraud File: Ohio Voter Lawsuit Woes
by Jeff Goldblatt
Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004 at 9:53 AM
WASHINGTON — It's not even Election Day and there are several lawsuits already out there in the battleground state of Ohio, which could impact the voting eligibility of tens of thousands of Ohioans.
The most controversial issue is whether poll watchers from both political parties should be permitted to challenge the eligibility of voters on Tuesday — something poll watchers have been permitted to do for 50 years under state law.
But Democrats have filed two suits — one in Akron and one in Cincinnati — to keep poll watchers at bay.
Democrats argue that voters who are disqualified by poll watchers don't have adequate time to appeal their eligibility while at the ballot box and say Republicans intend to mount Election Day challenges to suppress the minority vote in Democratic precincts.
"This is an underhanded attempt by the Kerry campaign to inject race into this election," said Greg Hartmann of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Hamilton County, Ohio. "We are following Ohio law and putting poll watchers in place to make sure Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck don't vote in this election."
But Mark Griffin, a Democratic coordinator in Cuyahoga County, said: "If we didn't think the Republicans were trying to stop people from voting, we probably wouldn't have our designated challengers there, either."
Ohio Republicans argue their first choice would have been to address the eligibility of disputed voters before Election Day in hearings before local election boards statewide.
One place where voter legitimacy has cropped up is in the Democratic stronghold of Cuyahoga County, where election officials have been scrutinizing 17,700 newly registered voters whose legitimacy have been challenged by the Republican Party.
The Board of Elections sent out a mailing to the new registrants and a high percentage — much higher than normal — came back in the return mail.
The Cuyahoga challenge was the largest filed by the Ohio GOP, which has contested the voting rights of a total of 35,000 new registrants with mail returned as undeliverable. But these are not the only votes disputed.
Republicans say their goal is to eliminate Election Day fraud. Democrats argue it's a campaign of intimidation, designed to suppress the minority vote in Democratic precincts.
"The motivation is to scare people from going to the polls, to try and suppress the vote in Cleveland," Griffin said.
But Hillary Taylor of the Ohio Republican Party said: "Everyone is going to benefit from this. It's a means of making sure the system is functioning properly."
A federal district judge ruled Friday morning that the pre-election hearings could not take place. Judge Susan Dlott said it would have been unfair and impossible to require voters to show up for hearings before the election to clear up the status of their voting eligibility.
Ohio law says any hearings to challenge a voter must take place no later than two days before Election Day.
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell issued a statement saying in light of recent litigations, "a full airing of these issues" likely can't be completed before Nov. 2.
"Therefore, I have instructed the attorney general to offer the following recommendation to the federal courts in Hamilton and Summit counties for resolution of these matters now: All challengers of all parties shall be excluded from polling places throughout the state," Blackwell said. "Following the election, I will institute litigation bringing together all parties to resolve the statutory and constitutional issues so they may be fully litigated and determined once and for all."
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