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Oct

10

Reversal in Ohio: Sheriff withdraws request for voter registration information


Less than four hours after the Ohio Democratic Party held a conference call with media, the prosecutor in Greene County has announced that the county’s sheriff is withdrawing his request to receive unredacted voter registration information, including social security numbers, for 302 individuals who registered and voted between September 30 and October 6, pursuant to a unique window created by a law passed by the Republican leadership of the Ohio legislature.  The prosecutor involved is a former law partner of Mike DeWine, the former Ohio senator who is the chair of the McCain campaign in Ohio.  The ODP chair, Chris Redfern, is described by the Dayton Daily News article about the withdrawal as being “closely involved” with the Obama campaign.

The DDN reports:

[Sheriff] Fischer’s request for un-redacted registration forms drew fire from Democrats and voting rights groups which called the action 1960’s style voter intimidation and suppression.

“This is an ugly partisan fishing expedition of unprecedented proportions,” said Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party. “This is the tip of the spear when it comes to GOP efforts to disenfranchise voters. They are doing so without just cause or shred of evidence.”

Redfern and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, both closely involved in Sen. Barack Obama’s Ohio campaign, said in a conference call Friday, the sheriff’s actions were meant to intimidate new young voters, many of whom are black. Greene County is home to five colleges including the historically black Central State and Wilberforce universities.

This morning, I posted the breaking news about the request here.

A commenter just left word that he believes the withdrawal can be attributed “to a fast and quick response by not only the Democratic Party and Voter’s rights advocates but wide reporting by the newspapers and bloggers.”

Could be, could be.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:29 pm October 10th, 2008 in Democrats, Ohio, Politics, Republicans, Voting, WH2008 

Comments

2 Responses to “Reversal in Ohio: Sheriff withdraws request for voter registration information”

  1. 1 Have Coffee Will Write » Blog Archive » DON’T GIVE THE BASTARDS AN INCH… on October 10th, 2008 5:17 pm

    [...] Jill Miller Zimon writes: Less than four hours after the Ohio Democratic Party held a conference call with media, the prosecutor in Greene County has announced that the county’s sheriff is withdrawing his request to receive unredacted voter registration information, including social security numbers, for 302 individuals who registered and voted between September 30 and October 6, pursuant to a unique window created by a law passed by the Republican leadership of the Ohio legislature. Posted in Election 2008 [...]

  2. 2 Michelle Frost on October 14th, 2008 5:07 pm

    At last we have a Democratic candidate who is willing to stand up for voters’ rights. We CANNOT stand by and allow this to happen again.

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