Friday, October 17, 2008

BREAKING: Supreme Court Rejects Ohio GOP Attempt to Purge New Voters

This just in from the AP. In a surprising move, the US Supreme Court just sided with the Ohio Secretary of State in overturning a lower court ruling that would have forced local election officials to purge voters off the rolls whose names did not exactly match the information recorded in other state & federal government databases.

So what does this mean? The Ohio Republicans were trying to purge legitimate new voters off the rolls by arguing that voters like "Jane D. Plain of Columbus, OH" shouldn't be allowed to vote if her drivers license shows "Jane Plain of Columbus, OH" and her Social Security records show a "Jane Doe Plain of Columbus, OH". Anyone who was recently married or has a middle name that isn't always included or was simply a victim of some government bureaucrat's sloppy handwriting could have been purged off the rolls. And why? Just so the state GOP can "deliver Ohio to McCain" in the same way that former Secretary of State Ken Blackwell promised to "deliver Ohio to George W. Bush" playing dirty tricks in 2004?

Good on the Supremes. It's good that they're standing up for the voters for once. Maybe they still feel guilty about Florida in 2000? Whatever their thinking, I'm glad they're allowing people's votes to be counted this time.

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