Overt Discrimination in Ohio

• OneBuckeye

  

  This doesn't make sense. It would seem to me you would get more welfare state voters during business hours in Cincinnati. They are saying people work are democrats? Also, how hard is it to vote on election day. Seriously.
  

  If you live in Butler or Warren counties in the Republican-leaning suburbs of Cincinnati, you can vote for president beginning in October by going to a polling place in the evening or on weekends. Republican officials in those counties want to make it convenient for their residents to vote early and avoid long lines on Election Day.Related in Opinion
  
  But, if you live in Cincinnati, you’re out of luck. Republicans on the county election board are planning to end early voting in the city promptly at 5 p.m., and ban it completely on weekends, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The convenience, in other words, will not be extended to the city’s working people.
  
  The sleazy politics behind the disparity is obvious. Hamilton County, which contains Cincinnati, is largely Democratic and voted solidly for Barack Obama in 2008. So did the other urban areas of Cleveland, Columbus and Akron, where Republicans, with the assistance of the Ohio secretary of state, Jon Husted, have already eliminated the extended hours for early voting.
  
  County election boards in Ohio, a closely contested swing state, are evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. In counties likely to vote for President Obama, Republicans have voted against the extended hours, and Mr. Husted has broken the tie in their favor. (He said the counties couldn’t afford the long hours.) In counties likely to vote for Mitt Romney, Republicans have not objected to the extended hours.
  
  This is just the latest alarming example of how Republicans across the country are trying to manipulate the electoral system by blocking the voting rights of their opponents. These actions have a disproportionate effect on blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities who struggled for so long to participate in American democracy.

• queencitybuckeye

  Source?
• OneBuckeye

  

  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/overt-discrimination-in-ohio.html
  
  NYT opinion. They cite the cinci enquirer.
• queencitybuckeye

  Thanks. How silly for any number of reasons. A couple that jump to mind:
  
  - the notion that the rules must be the same from county to county, particularly when one is a huge urban county, and the others smaller, suburban counties. There couldn't be other reasons why these offices would be run differently, could there?
  - that Hamilton county democrats can't find a way to get there between now and November without being open evenings and weekends. Ridiculous. Beyond brain-dead.
• gut

  Obama's base are (inexplicably) mostly unemployed...so I don't see the issue:laugh:
  
  If Repubs really wanted to stick it to Obama, they'd cut bus service on election day.
• sleeper

  

  gut;1247803 wrote:Obama's base are (inexplicably) mostly unemployed...so I don't see the issue:laugh:

  REPS.
• isadore

  of course, deprive people of suffrage, the republican way.
• believer

  

  gut;1247803 wrote:If Repubs really wanted to stick it to Obama, they'd cut bus service on election day.

  Or Repubs could at least require a valid photo ID before the riders board the bus....just sayin'.
• LJ

  

  Statewide standards have been set. 7 PM in every county. 750 total hours to early vote
• gut

  isadore;1247840 wrote:of course, deprive people of suffrage, the republican way.

  This really illustrates a gulf of a divide between liberals and rational people. Nobody is being denied the ability to vote here. Limits are being place on just how accommodating we are.
  
  The simple fact is polls are open on election day, and there is AMPLE opportunity to vote early. That people don't have opportunity to vote EARLY 24/7 is hardly denying, or even restricting, their right to vote. But that's a good way to flush money down the toilet, which liberals excel at.
  
  LMAO, reminds me of that old Chicago mantra "vote early, vote often"
• isadore

  the more hours open, the greater right to exercise your suffrage. the utter hypocrisy of you republicans, opposing the lengthening of voting hours except in republican dominated areas.
• gut

  isadore;1247871 wrote:the more hours open, the greater right to exercise your suffrage.

  Complete nonsense, and a waste of taxpayer money.
• isadore

  of course the hypocrisy of just fine with extended hours for republican voters, but wasting the tax payers money with the same hours for democratic voters.
• ksig489

  gut;1247893 wrote:Complete nonsense, and a waste of taxpayer money.

  Some Democrats dont have a problem wasting taxpayers money...Republicans work and pay taxes on their income, while they don't work and still get their smokes off of the government dime...paid for by those of us with jobs.
• HitsRus

  

  the more hours open, the greater right to exercise your suffrage. the utter hypocrisy of you republicans, opposing the lengthening of voting hours except in republican dominated areas.

  
  Your information is stale...
  as stated earlier, post #9....the voting hours are directed to be uniform throughout the state.
• stlouiedipalma

  LJ;1247852 wrote:Statewide standards have been set. 7 PM in every county. 750 total hours to early vote

  You got a link to that?
  
  We're discussing early voting, not the hours on Election Day.
• gut

  isadore;1247871 wrote:the more hours open, the greater right to exercise your suffrage. the utter hypocrisy of you republicans, opposing the lengthening of voting hours except in republican dominated areas.

  The booths are open the same time for everyone on Nov 9 or whatever the day is.
  
  There is no "degree" of right to exercise your privilege to vote - you have it or you don't. This issue has absolutely nothing to do with preventing anyone from voting. It's a convenience issue, and one the taxpayer shouldn't be bent-over to provide regardless of your party.
• stlouiedipalma

  gut;1248116 wrote:The booths are open the same time for everyone on Nov 9 or whatever the day is.
  
  There is no "degree" of right to exercise your privilege to vote - you have it or you don't. This issue has absolutely nothing to do with preventing anyone from voting. It's a convenience issue, and one the taxpayer shouldn't be bent-over to provide regardless of your party.

  Early voting is very convenient and I take advantage of it here in Illinois. While a lot of you on the OC want to restrict voting, early voting is just another example of removing barriers to people in an effort to get them to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
• HitsRus

  

  http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120815/NEWS/308150099/Husted-standardizes-Ohio-s-voting-hours?odyssey=nav%7Chead
• gut

  stlouiedipalma;1248121 wrote:Early voting is very convenient and I take advantage of it here in Illinois. While a lot of you on the OC want to restrict voting, early voting is just another example of removing barriers to people in an effort to get them to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

  It's NOT remotely restricting anyone's ability to vote. If people don't have an incentive to go to the booth in November, then they probably have no business voting. We shouldn't have to undertake "efforts" to provide incentive for people to vote. Hell, we should be going the other direction - people should have to demonstrate some basic level of knowledge/awareness in order to be able to vote. The right to vote does not absolve one of a responsibility to be informed.
• stlouiedipalma

  HitsRus;1248128 wrote:http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120815/NEWS/308150099/Husted-standardizes-Ohio-s-voting-hours?odyssey=nav|head

  Thanks for the link. Looks like the SOS got caught trying to stack the deck, so he had to come up with something. Still would be nice to see the polls open on the weekend before Election Day.
• stlouiedipalma

  gut;1248132 wrote:It's NOT remotely restricting anyone's ability to vote. If people don't have an incentive to go to the booth in November, then they probably have no business voting. We shouldn't have to undertake "efforts" to provide incentive for people to vote. Hell, we should be going the other direction - people should have to demonstrate some basic level of knowledge/awareness in order to be able to vote. The right to vote does not absolve one of a responsibility to be informed.

  
  You conveniently ignore the basic fact that we have a right to vote. It doesn't come with poll taxes or intelligence tests, although in your party's desperate bid to return to the 50's that would be restored, wouldn't it.
• believer

  

  I would agree that we have a constitutionally mandated right to vote regardless of how uninformed we may be. However, I don't think it's too much to ask those incompetent voters to produce a valid photo ID proving U.S. citizenship BEFORE they cast their uninformed votes.
• queencitybuckeye

  stlouiedipalma;1248137 wrote:You conveniently ignore the basic fact that we have a right to vote. It doesn't come with poll taxes or intelligence tests, although in your party's desperate bid to return to the 50's that would be restored, wouldn't it.

  Right to vote on election day at an assigned polling place. Any other method of voting is a convenience and is in no way a "right".
• LJ

  

  stlouiedipalma;1248121 wrote:Early voting is very convenient and I take advantage of it here in Illinois. While a lot of you on the OC want to restrict voting, early voting is just another example of removing barriers to people in an effort to get them to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

  
  Between absentee and early voting, you have 1590 hours (in Ohio) to vote before the election day. I see no barriers here.