On Fri, 12 Sep 2008, Joanna wrote:
> *Dirty Tricks Starting Already in Ohio*
>
> The Cincinnati Enquirer has a story
> <http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080911/NEWS0108/309110032/>
> about dirty tricks in Ohio intended to influence the election there. The
> McCain campaign printed a form on which a voter can request an absentee
> ballot and sent out about 1 million of them. The form included an unnecessary
> box asking if the voter was eligible to vote. If the voter didn't notice the
> box and didn't check it, he or she is in fact admitting that he or she is not
> eligible and the application has to be rejected by law. Secretary of state
> Jennifer Brunner is hopping mad about this stunt but she is required by law
> to reject invalid applications.
I don't know where this came from originally, but if you follow it back to its source:
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080912/NEWS0106/809120342/0/NEWS0108
you find this blurb has gotten the story dead backwards: this is the McCain campaign shooting *themselves* in the foot, not screwing Democrats. They sent these absentee applications to Republican voters, and it's 1000 Republican voters the Ohio Secretary of State is rejecting by following the law to the letter -- making Republicans hopping mad.
The big story here is how different things are from 4 years ago now that you have a Democratic Governor and a Democratic Secretary of State in Ohio (esp. the latter, replacing that criminal Ken Blackwell). The Repugs are infinitely inventive in voter suppression tricks. But they aren't happening in vacuum. The Dems have lots of lawyers on their side playing defense.
Michael