Ohio voters face challenges from tea party groups

September 27, 2012

abaldwin360:

CINCINNATI — Lori Monroe, a 40-year-old Democrat who lives in central Ohio, was startled a few weeks ago to open a letter that said a stranger was challenging her right to vote in the presidential election.

Monroe, who was recovering from cancer surgery, called the local election board to protest. A local tea party leader was trying to strike Monroe from the voter rolls for a reason that made no sense: Her apartment building in Lancaster was listed as a commercial property.

“I’m like, really? Seriously?” Monroe said. “I’ve lived here seven years, and now I’m getting challenged?”

Monroe’s is one of at least 2,100 names that tea party groups have sought to remove from Ohio’s voter rosters.

The groups and their allies describe it as a citizen movement to prevent ballot fraud, although the Republican secretary of state said in an interview that he knew of no evidence that any more than a handful of illegal votes had been cast in Ohio in the last few presidential elections.

“We’re all about election integrity — making sure everyone who votes is registered and qualified voters,” said Mary Siegel, one of the leaders of the Ohio effort.

Some Democrats see it as a targeted vote-suppression drive. The names selected for purging include hundreds of college students, trailer park residents, homeless people and African Americans in counties President Obama won in 2008.

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If they were actually only trying to clean up the voter roles, they would be doing this is every state.

Not just battleground states.

I suppose they figure if they can’t beat ‘em, they’ll cheat ‘em.

Am I wrong for wanting the names of the assholes doing the challenges published somewhere? So I can send them snarky cards or something?

Thank god the elections board sent her a letter - can you imagine if people could be contested and never know? I would say that I don’t believe people could stoop so low, but I do believe it - I guess I just don’t understand why people find it necessary to cheat and be underhanded.

12:52pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZbBMFyUBK9Cc

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