Return to Sender
Just in case you thought the bastards were declawed just because they are in retreat…
Step past the alarmist headline. 600,000 voters is a lot to predict being abandoned in Ohio, out of a total population (of all ages) of 11 million, only a fraction of which are registered voters. Stealing 10 to 15% of the vote seems unlikely…but as 2000 showed, you only need to steal 1%, if your aim is good.
Nonetheless, the grounds for alarm are very real. Read down to the part where voters can be stricken from the voting rolls, not on evidence of ineligibility, but simply on a challenge from a political party. They may be stricken from the rolls almost too close to the election to do anything, but, more to the point, no attempt will be made to let them know that there is anything to be done…until November 4, when voters are turned away simply because one party didn’t like the look of them.
Naturally, the Republicans currently in control of the state aren’t the only ones who can issue such challenges. Also naturally, there is a review board with the power to reject such challenges. In a non-partisan environment, oversight like this would be desirable, even necessary. But Ohio is not a non-partisan environment. Remember from 2004, and from 2000 before that, that Ohio’s voting board is packed with Republican loyalists. Not merely overseers who happen to be Republicans, but people who can be expected to place party ahead of principle. The ones who see nothing wrong with providing insufficient voting booths for Democratic-leaning counties and sending voters home uncounted when the day expires before they can all participate. The ones who see nothing wrong with awarding a contract for new voting machines to an outspoken Republican, nor of letting him personally alter a few machines just before voting day, to correct an ostensible programming flaw. Not all the machines, mind you—just those in selected districts. Even if we has guarantees that such machinations are genuinely aimed at ensuring the booths work properly—and no investigation is underway to guarantee it—the mere appearance of corruption is harmful to the democratic process. People stay home when they think the game is rigged.
So if voter X is challenged on the very flimsy grounds of a returned mailing, the cherry-picked Republican review board can just take a quick look at his demographics. White working-class male? Pass. If voter Y is challenged on the very same grounds, and he’s black, or poor, or college-aged? Out he goes. So sorry. Better luck in 2012. If only you’d thought to check earlier whether someone had struck your name from the voting lists without telling you.
Oh, and the law automatically expires in January, 2009. Just in case.
The 2000 elections were balanced on a hair. A single medium-sized state, like Ohio, could swing the election. Perhaps it did. I spent half an hour looking for a particular quote to wrap this piece up; I’m told Molly Ivins said something similar to, “The bastards will cheat 10% of the vote, so we have to beat them by 15%,” but I can’t find it anywhere. (If nobody else wants credit, I’ll take it; it’s a good line.) Whether Ivins said it or not, it’s looking more and more true with every Ohio return.