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Oct

29

[flow chart] How Early Voting Works in Ohio

Filed Under Elections, Ohio, Voting, WH2008 | Comments Off

Many thanks to the Dayton Daily News for this chart that shows the work flow related to early voters. I’ll be participating in that now that I know I’ll be in D.C. for election night at NPR.

How to vote early

Registered voters may apply for absentee ballots through Saturday, Nov. 1, and all area boards of election will be open that day. Early voting at election board offices continues through the close of business Monday, Nov. 3.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:46 pm October 29th, 2008 in Elections, Ohio, Voting, WH2008 | Comments Off 

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Oct

29

DOJ provides safe haven for Ohio’s newest voters to, you know, vote

Filed Under Elections, Jennifer Brunner, Ohio, Politics, Republicans, Voting, WH2008 | 1 Comment

I really can’t say it any better than Jeff Coryell of Ohio Daily Blog:

In short, the Ohio Republican Party’s hysterical flailing at [Secretary of State] Brunner for “concealing evidence” and “facilitating voter fraud” is pernicious nonsense and little more than a smokescreen for voter suppression.

Backing up just a bit, readers may recall that we’re talking about concerns related to so-called voter mismatches that exist within a subset of Ohio voters who have registered since January 2008.  The Ohio Republican Party wanted to force Brunner to provide information on the possible mismatches of up to 200,000 voters so that the ORP could then challenge those voters if and when they show up to vote, purportedly to stop voting fraud.

The main problem has been, all along, that an extremely high percentage of the mismatches, up to and maybe beyond 80%, are due to human error and not any reason that would otherwise disqualify a voter from voting.  Thus, the real danger was voter suppression and disenfranchisement by the ORP’s overly aggressive and basically baseless fears.

From the New York Times’ blog, The Caucus:

The Department of Justice will not require Ohio to disclose the names of voters whose registration applications did not match other government databases, according to two people familiar with discussions between state and federal lawyers.

The decision comes about a week after an unusual request from President Bush asking the department to investigate the matter and roughly two weeks after the Supreme Court dismissed a case involving the flagged registration applications.

Federal law requires states to verify voter registration applications with a government database like those used for driver’s licenses or Social Security cards. Names that do not match are flagged for further verification. But the law provides little guidance on how these flagged registrations should be handled and discrepancies corrected.

As an Ohio voter, I particularly appreciate the Times pointing out the role Bush and the Ohio GOP have had in this series of events:

Ohio Republicans had sought the lists to challenge voters, but the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, refused the request, saying that numerical errors or misspellings are the probable reason for most of the discrepancies. Forcing these voters to cast provisional ballots would possibly disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters, she said, since these ballots are easier to disqualify.

Republicans then took their request to court, but were unsuccessful. The Justice Department has been in contact with Ohio election officials since early October and this week its lawyers determined they would not pursue litigation before the election, according to the sources familiar with the discussions.

Most studies by non-partisan groups have found little evidence that voter fraud is a wide-scale problem or that fraudulent or duplicate voter registration applications lead to ineligible voters casting ballots.

As a taxpayer, what is so annoying is that, again, the GOP claims to want smaller goverment and give business all kinds of latitude, but when it comes to them wanting to get their way, especially when they aren’t in charge, look how much time, money and effort – not to mention the intangible cost on voter confidence – they are willing to expend.

From a partisan strategy, I get it – but I still think it’s wrong.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:17 pm October 29th, 2008 in Elections, Jennifer Brunner, Ohio, Politics, Republicans, Voting, WH2008 | 1 Comment 

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Oct

29

[video] A Yiddisha take on 2008: enjoy the schtick, now go vote

Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaigning, Elections, Humor, Israel, Jewish, John McCain, Politics, WH2008 | Comments Off

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:42 pm October 29th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Elections, Humor, Israel, Jewish, John McCain, Politics, WH2008 | Comments Off 

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Oct

29

Live-blog: Barack Obama American Stories, 30 min. program

Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaigning, Media, Politics, WH2008 | 2 Comments

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:49 pm October 29th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Media, Politics, WH2008 | 2 Comments 

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Oct

29

Carnival of Ohio Politics #140 now posted

Filed Under Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off

This edition of the Carnival of Ohio Politics #140 is the last before election day and it’s packed with a variety of views and topics.

Many thanks to the contributors – two of whom are new or almost new (welcome!).

Have a great safe week and please, vote.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:50 pm October 29th, 2008 in Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off 

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Oct

29

[UPDATEx2] Live-blog of Palin speech rally in Toledo, OH; text of Palin energy speech

Filed Under Campaigning, Energy, Ohio, Politics, Sarah Palin, WH2008 | 2 Comments

UPDATE: Toledo’s WTOL has both a live-blog and video.  As of 11:25am, Alaska Governor and GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin was not yet at the venue.

UPDATEx2: My bad: the live-blog is of the rally with Sarah Palin after she gave her energy speech.  You can read the text of the prepared remarks on the policy speech here.

Many thanks to Lisa Renee of Glass City Jungle for posting about it and here’s the link so you can go directly to Swampbubbles who is doing the live-blog.  Swampbubbles is a Toledo-based blog.  So far I can see comments that Joe the Plumber is there and the “crowd went wild.”

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:03 am October 29th, 2008 in Campaigning, Energy, Ohio, Politics, Sarah Palin, WH2008 | 2 Comments 

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Oct

29

Will Happy Days be yours and mine?

Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaigning, Endorsements, WH2008 | 5 Comments

For sure, it’s in the eye of the beholder. Ron Howard played some of the most decent characters in his life as an actor, and for those of us who remember how his characters of Opie and Richie Cunningham tried to deal with change and diversity around them, even while living in superficially unremarkable homes and neighborhoods, it makes you appreciate all the more the message he and his characters send in this video. I love seeing the Fonz in this clip because my kids now all read his books about Hank Zipzer. Also, Howard’s Splash is one of my favorite corny films.

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:32 am October 29th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Endorsements, WH2008 | 5 Comments 

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Oct

29

Three new sets of newspaper endorsement information

Filed Under Barack Obama, Endorsements, John McCain, Media, Politics, WH2008 | 9 Comments

1. DemConWatch is the new player. Their tally is Obama 215, McCain 75. They make it very easy to see what the break is in the battleground states (as identified by Real Clear Politics):

Colorado: 9 v 4

Florida: 13 v 3

Georgia: 3 v 2

Indiana: 3 v 0

Missouri: 3 v 0

Montana: 1 v 0

Nevada: 2 v 1

North Carolina: 6 v 0

Ohio: 9 v 3

Virginia: 11 v 4

TOTAL: Obama 60, McCain 17

For fun (because they are not really battlegrounds):

Arizona: 0 v 1

Pennsylvania 13 v 2

TOTAL: Obama 13, McCain 3

Re: read this Editor & Publisher piece re: whether this matters.

2.  Editor & Publisher reports that Obama leads McCain in newspaper endorsements, 222 to 93.

Obama’s lopsided margin, including most of the major papers that have decided so far, is in stark contrast to John Kerry barely edging George W. Bush in endorsements in 2004 by 213 to 205. Obama, with 222, has already topped Kerry’s number with many more yet to be tallied.

At least 43 papers have now switched to Obama from Bush in 2004, with just four flipping to McCain. In addition, several top papers that went for Bush in 2004 have now chosen not to endorse this year, the latest being the Indianapolis Star in key swing state Indiana.

3. From Wikipedia, we get Obama 218, McCain 80, with 44 switching from Bush to Obama and five switching from Kerry to McCain.

Total circulation being hit: Obama is over 27 million, McCain is is near 8 million.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:21 am October 29th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Endorsements, John McCain, Media, Politics, WH2008 | 9 Comments 

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