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Attempts to probe new registrants jeopardize system
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau
Published on Saturday, Oct 11, 2008
COLUMBUS: Greene County, in Ohio's southwestern corner, is home to Xenia, the little Americana town that was devastated by a tornado in 1974 that killed 32 people, destroyed more than 300 homes and blew the roof and windows right off the county courthouse.
Last week, an ill wind of a different sort from a not-so-distant past blew into Greene County, carrying with it reminders of the nation's sorrowful history of racism, intimidation, voter suppression and a warning that we're not at that mountaintop yet.
If you have never visited bucolic Greene County, it is one of the most aesthetically pleasing landscapes in all the state, with winding roads, rolling hills and verdant farm fields.
It is fertile in another way as well. The mostly rural setting is home to five institutions of higher education, including Wilberforce University, the nation's oldest private African-American school founded before the Civil War, and 120-year-old Central State University, Ohio's only historically black public university.
No one knows at this point how many students from these two African-American schools are among the 300 adults in Greene County to take advantage of an early registration law in Ohio that allows someone to sign up and cast his or her ballot on the same day, but the local sheriff is bound and
determined to find out.
Greene Sheriff Gene Fischer decided last week that he had heard enough rumors regarding potential voter fraud, so he investigated.
Fischer, a Republican, went to the local elections board and asked for all the information on the roughly 300 recently registered voters.
These are public records, but Fischer wanted everything, including nonpublic information like Social Security and driver's license numbers.
If Fischer was launching a formal investigation, armed with some evidence of wrongdoing, he could have easily procured a subpoena for the complete records.
Instead, Fischer moved ahead buoyed only by hearsay, rumor and speculation — and the elections board properly denied the request for the nonpublic information.
This ill-conceived act is enough to raise questions about Fischer's understanding of the law and his sensitivity to ensuring that voters — especially African-American voters — feel secure and not threatened by exercising their fundamental rights, but his ineptitude did not occur in a vacuum.
With Ohio a key state in the presidential election, Republicans and Democrats are once again fighting over whether our elections system is sound or potentially subject to fraud.
So Fischer, as a Republican, immediately opened his party up to charges that his investigation was designed to intimidate voters and suppress turnout.
Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, an African-American who was one of the first elected officials in Ohio to support Democrat Barack Obama, said Fischer's actions were reminiscent of another notorious law-enforcement officer from the past: Bull Connor, who turned dogs and water hoses on African-American demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963.
''Am I now going to be investigated because I exercised my right to vote?'' Coleman asked.
Republican ties
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said it is easy for people who have never had their rights threatened to underestimate the depth of Fischer's attempt to scare young voters. And Redfern asked: Imagine what it would be like to have the local sheriff show up at your dorm room to ask questions.
Fischer is not the only Republican in Greene County to not think this effort through.
County Prosecutor Stephen Haller represented Fischer in his efforts to obtain the voter information. Haller is a former law partner of Mike DeWine, chairman of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in Ohio.
Did Fischer or Haller, when they were preparing to make an unlawful request of public records based on phone calls and whispers, consider that their motives might be questioned?
Redfern also pointed out that Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine, a distant cousin of Mike DeWine, just happens to be from Greene County, too.
Kevin DeWine responded to Redfern and Coleman's charges Friday by pointing a finger to voter suppression efforts by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner instead of denying or refuting claims that Fischer was engaged in racism, intimidation or voter suppression.
By Friday afternoon, Fischer and Haller decided to just pull their public records request and bring a quick end to a short, but shameful moment in Ohio election history.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Greene County, in Ohio's southwestern corner, is home to Xenia, the little Americana town that was devastated by a tornado in 1974 that killed 32 people, destroyed more than 300 homes and blew the roof and windows right off the county courthouse.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 09:13 AM, 10/11/2008
And people wonder why they do things like Affirmative Action. 1865 should have ended this sh-t.
Akron, , OH
Posted 09:54 AM, 10/11/2008
OJ finally got his!!!!
Time will tell.
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Posted 11:26 AM, 10/11/2008
Fischer may not have gone through official channels to investigate this, which is a shame, but it is becoming more than obvious that voting fraud is taking place on a massive scale in Ohio. Democrat-backed organizations like ACORN are actively perpetrating registration fraud in this state as we speak. And when the methods are questioned, those seeking answers are constantly shot sown in the media by journalists such as Mr. Willard. He, and others, are so very quick to brand those of us who are sick and tired of seeing America's electoral process hijacked by radical, ultra-partisan ideological zealots in the name of "fairness" and "sensitivity", as racists. For those of you who are willing to go to ANY length to see that Barack Obama is elected president, have at it. I guarantee that you will rue the day when someone lines you up and tells you where to vote, and exactly who to vote for, under threat of duress. You will reap what you sow, which will be the utter destruction of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as we know it.
AKRON, OH
Posted 02:44 PM, 10/11/2008
ACTUAL E-MAIL
MR. WILLARD,
GOOD AFTERNOON. I READ THE ABOVE REFERANCED ARTICLE AND POSTED A RESPONSE WHICH WAS, LET'S JUST SAY, FAR FROM FLATTERING TO YOU. THE INTERESTING PART, WHILE NO OFFENSIVE MATERIAL WAS PERESENT, UNLESS YOU ARE A COOKIE FED, CRYBABY, MALCONTENT WANNABE JUURNALIST, IS THAT, IT DID NOT POST. CERTAINLY WITHIN YOUR (SNIF) RIGHTS TO REPRESS, SHAME ON YOU JUST THE SAME. I GO BY "JUST AN OBSERVER" PREHAPS MY POST IS STILL "FLOATING" AROUND ON YOUR SERVER. IF SO - READ IT AND - TAKE THAT !!
Posted 02:53 PM, 10/11/2008
Dear Just and Observer: I just tried to post something that was in support of Mr. Willard, and mine didn't post either. Perhaps the failure of your message was a technical problem; I'm still trying to figure out why mine didn't work.
AKRON, OH
Posted 03:12 PM, 10/11/2008
CRIS - YEAH MAYBE - GOOD LUCK TO YOURS ALSO
AKRON, OH
Posted 03:42 PM, 10/11/2008
OK - LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN. WE START HERE WITH SOME WEATHER HISTORY THEN METAPHORICALLY MOVE TO THE WINDS OF RACISM CIRCA, I DUNNA KNOW, THE 60'S ?MOVING RIGHT ALONG - THE FERTILE COUNTRYSIDE AND LANDSCAPE PAVES THE WAY TO THE FETILE LEARNING ENVIORMENTS OF WILBERFORCE AND CENTRAL STATE UNIVERSITIES, BOTH CATERING, PRIMARILY TO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN GENRE. WITH ME SO FAR ? ENTER THE LOCAL SHERIFF WITH CONCERNS OF THE POSSIBLITY OF ELECTION FRAUD, WHAT WITH THE REGISTER AND VOTE SAME DAY APPROACH TO THINGS. EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY, OR PERHAPS, VERIFY THOSE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPTION. TRUE ENOUGH, SHERIFF FISCHER'S METHODS COULD BE IMPROVE UPON, REGARDLESS THERE IS A VALID ISSUE HERE. TO CONTINUE, MAYOR MICHAEL COLEMAN, OF COLUMBUS FAME, CITES THE EXAMPLE OF 1963 BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA DEMONSTRATION WHERE DOGS AND WATER HOSES WERE USED TO QUELL THE DEMONSTRATORS - HEY COUNCIL PRESIDENT SOMMERVILLE - THEY'RE PLAYING YOUR SONG. THIS IS ONE OF MARCO'S FAVORITE BEDTIME STORIES. SO FAR I JUST DON'T SMELL THE RACISM IN THIS STORY. IT'S BEING SLANTED AS VOTOR SUPRESSION. REALLY ? THESE PEOPLE HAVE LIVED HERE HOW LONG ? NOT WEEKS AWAY FROM A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, THERE IS THIS RUSH FOR REGISTRATION AND SAME DAY VOTING ABILITIES ? WHERE WAS URGENCY IN, SAY AUGUST ? I'M SURE GETTING A WHIF OF SOMETHING. BAD JOURNALISM TO START WITH. DENNIS J. WILLARD HAS TURNED A MEDIOCRE STORY INTO SOME RACIALLY GRANDSTANDING TRIPE. PROBEBLY LOOKS GOOD TO YOUR BOSSES THOUGH - HUH ? SHAME ON YOU. BY THE WAY - WHAT WAS FOUND OUT ABOUT THE INDIVIDUALS SHERIFF FISCHER WAS LOOKING INTO REGARDING HIS CONCERNS ? GUESS THAT'S PART TWO OF YOUR NON-SENSE - HUH DENNY ?
Posted 03:45 PM, 10/11/2008
Mr. Willard,
How in the hell can you be worried about people not being allowed to vote when they shouldn't even be voting in October in the first place? You democrats are taking part in so much voter fraud it is not funny, and when someone becomes suspect, you cry no fair or racist or whatever! If Obama and democrats in general were so confident in their platform and people buying their message, why is it so necessary to steal an election? It's the only way you democrats can win. You can't win on issues, but only by stealing an election and on others' misery like doing your best to try to lose a war or hoping the economy goes south just in time for the election! America's misery is the opportunity for democrats to win elections. They do not care about the American people, just gaining power. Obama has been harping on the economy for two years constantly because he's a communist! He hates the free market economy that we all prosper from. Just look at the people who surround him. All Saul Alinsky radicals. The ironic part is that he and his democratic comrades have their fingerprints all over this financial meltdown. Dodd, Schumer, Frank, Franklin Rains, Jim Johnson, just to name a few. George Bush and the republicans, including John McCain saw this coming and tried to do something, but their efforts were blocked by none other than democrats.
Posted 03:48 PM, 10/11/2008
Reply to Tim: I think there is an irony in your warning, as I will point out in a sec. But first, I totally sympathize with your feelings, even though I am an enthusiastic Obama supporter. We on the Dem side have also heard lots of stories about electoral dirty tricks. And though I personally think a lot of them are urban myths, which are so common now with viral email, I always find myself more than ready to believe whatever the conspiracy theorists want to say about the other side (which in this case, I gather, is your side).
But here's the irony. Underlying one of the political scandals that ate up much of last year, the US Attorney firings, was the effort to get more prosecutions going for alleged voter fraud by Democrats. That is, several of these men and women, whose firings the independent, non-partisan DOJ Inspector General (Glen Fine) found to have been illegal, were fired by the Bush administration for refusing to try to put the administration's political opponents in *prison.* Their refusals were based on their determinations that the cases for voter fraud were not well founded.
So here's the irony: Your fairly bitter-grapes-ey sounding last few lines warn we Obama supporters that we will "rue the day" when Obama "utter[ly] destr[oys] life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . . . ." But when you have a President and the Attorney General trying to put people in prison just for their political beliefs, how could you ever vote for another Republican again?
Akron, Oh
Posted 06:15 PM, 10/11/2008
I dont know. I just remember the last election. What comes around goes around. karma is a mother
San Diego, CA
Posted 08:41 PM, 10/11/2008
To the other Joseph: This is laughable. The republicans stole the last two elections. People are now wising up and trying not to let them steal this one and you try to turn it around. And to your point that the Democrats blocked Bush and McCain's efforts to correct the problems that are causing our financial crisis, why didn't Bush and McCain do something about the situation while they controlled Congress and held the presidency from 2000 to 2006. The underlying issues to the crisis didn't just start in 2006.
Posted 10:21 PM, 10/11/2008
11 Oct 08-"Appeals Court Sides With Ohio Secretary of State"(fox.com)FRAUD CAN CONTINUE!
Quote:
"The ... Court of Appeals has halted another partisan lawsuit in Ohio," she said. "Under the Help America Vote Act, this verification process is not and has not been permitted to be used to determine a voter's eligibility."
The orders stemmed from a lawsuit the Ohio Republican Party filed against Brunner, whom Chairman Bob Bennett called "the most partisan secretary of state in Ohio history."
"It's a shame we don't have transparency in this election. She has done everything she can to help her candidate," Bennett said. "To not even check the registrations is a travesty of the first class."
Bennett said the party's lawyers would determine its next step, including whether to appeal. A message seeking comment was left late Friday at the office of Bill Todd, a lawyer for the party.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10...cretary-state/
Posted 12:02 AM, 10/12/2008
God forbid everyone register to vote and be allowed to vote on election day like it was always done. Now we have to cater to these new rules and have opened up lawsuit after lawsuit. This is the work of the Democratic party trying to make elections unfair. Brunner is the most partisan Sec of State we have ever seen in Ohio. she has been trying to stack the deck at all the B of E's since taking office. Thank God we had Alex Arshinkoff here and Summit County put her in her place as I am sure the state party will when they reverse this latest judges ruling. Let's once again take it to the Ohio Supreme Court
Copley, OH
Posted 10:48 AM, 10/12/2008
Here in Summit Co., our Board of Elections can't file a simple, timely name change for a candidate. Are we to assume that they will handle voter registration or anything else correctly? I certainly don't feel they will handle things correctly at all. They are either slaves to partisan politics or incompetent.
Posted 03:06 AM, 10/13/2008
To all you people living in the ACORN delusion: why do you think they are a target? Because of fraud, or because they have been incredibly effective at registering thousands of new voters? Bush/Cheney tried this tactic before and couldn't get their own prosecutor to touch it because it was a joke. Republicans are coordinating this attack because they have nothing left. No ideas, no decent candidate.
The most partisan Secretary of State in history? You folks apparently forgot about Blackwell who was both Secretary of State and chairman of Bush's re-election campaign at the same time.
Akron, OH
Posted 09:22 AM, 10/13/2008
"living in the ACORN delusion"????
Wow, seeing how it is a fact that Acorn is committing fraud in Ohio (one man said they bribed him to register over 70 times!) and in other states, you think it's a delusion?
I guess though if you rely on the ABJ to report the news, maybe you would not know the truth since they are pushing their agenda and only report junk like this and make it racial.
Finally canceled my subscription to the leaking urinal this morning!
