Democrats & Black Pastors in Cleveland Misleading Voters on Early Voting in Ohio

Well they say there is always a first!  

This must be the first time we have ever agreed with the one time chief mouthpiece & propagandist of the limousine liberals running Cuyahoga County - former Plain Dealer Editorial Director Brett Larkin.

Below Larkin rightfully takes the Democrats, the black Pastors, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and State Senator & OH SoS candidate Nina Turner, Cuyahoga County Executive & Democrat candidate for Governor Ed FitzGerald to task for their crocodile tears regarding the changes to early voting in Ohio and the removal of Sunday voting. 

Larkin points out some of the facts that are getting washed out by the river of crocodile tears they are crying....

• 32 states have early absentee voting with an average starting time of 22 days before the election.  LESS days than Ohio's 28 days of voting before the election.

• 20 states require an excuse for absentee voting. A registered voter in Ohio can vote absentee with no excuse required.

• Removing Sunday Voting: In five days of early voting in Cuyahoga County prior to the 2012 presidential election, fewer people voted on Sunday than any other day. Early voting turnout was 46 percent higher on Friday and 23 percent higher on Saturday than it was Sunday.

• Of the 32 states that allow it, the length of the in-person early voting period varies by state from four days to 45. The average is 19 days. Ohio has 20 days of in-person voting.

• Ohio Democrat Rep. Marci Kaptur and civil rights leaders Rep. John Lewis, are promoting a bill that would require all states only offer 15 days of early voting and would not mandate early voting the Sunday before the election.

Also adding to what Larkin points out above is the fact that a voting bill that removed the "Golden Week" and reduced early voting to 21 days passed the Democrat controlled OH House in 2009.

While it is to be expected that political party machine's and politicians will put a "spin" on issues.  And it is pretty much a given that politicians like those listed above will knowingly & willfully misrepresent the truth (lie) to fire up their base.  

But one has to ask about the black pastors!?!? 

At best, the black pastors participating in this misleading political charade of half-truths either refuse to educate themselves with the whole truth & facts, or at worse - they are willing participants in sowing discord by spreading lies & deception regarding early voting in Ohio.  

Either way these black pastors should be ashamed as they are doing a great disservice and owe more to their congregation.  Maybe a quick read of Proverbs 6:16-19 and a review of the Ninth Commandment (Thou shall not lie) is in order for these pastors. 

From The PD --

Democrats have lots of legitimate issues to raise in this year’s election for governor and other statewide offices.

Early voting isn’t one of them.

Noisemaking about voter suppression is, for the most part, utter nonsense.

Access to the ballot in Ohio is better than the national average and light years better than it is in the bluest states in nation. In fact, many Democratic states have laws governing voting so archaic one would think they were drafted by Fox News.

But Jim Crow-type voting laws in places like New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut never seem to get the attention of MSNBC and the Huffington Post. And when Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted adopted the early voting recommendations of a 20-member panel of elections officials that consists of 10 Democratic loyalists, the Husted-bashing returned with a vengeance.

Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, advocated defying state law by having the county send out its own absentee ballot applications.

State Sen. Nina Turner, Husted’s Democratic challenger in this year’s election for secretary of state, declared herself “absolutely disgusted” with Husted’s early voting schedule.

And Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio’s leading Democrat, described (to MSNBC) the early voting edict as more evidence of Republican “mean spiritedness.”

The 2014 election in Ohio offers an ideal opportunity for meaningful debate on the policies of Gov. John Kasich and the Republican-run legislature.

Any partial list of those policies should include tax policy, job creation, educational attainment, deep cuts made to local governments in 2011 and laws aimed at women.

But angry rhetoric about early voting has a better chance of riling up the base than a thoughtful discussion of Ohio’s future.

For a moment, however, it’s worth tuning out the noise and considering, courtesy of the National Conference of State Legislatures and other sources, some of those stubborn little facts that get in the way of the voter suppression argument.

Thirty-two states have various forms of early absentee voting. The average starting time for early voting is 22 days before the election. Early absentee voting in Ohio this year starts 28 days before the election.

Twenty states require an excuse for absentee voting, including the three Democratic states I listed earlier and the all-important swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In Ohio, a registered voter can cast a ballot from the comfort of home, any time, day or night, nearly a month before the election — no excuse required.

Democrats, black ministers and other critics focus particularly on the lack of Sunday voting in Husted’s schedule (there will be Sunday voting in the 2016 presidential election).

But in five days of early voting in Cuyahoga County prior to the 2012 presidential election, fewer people voted on Sunday than any other day. Early voting turnout was 46 percent higher on Friday and 23 percent higher on Saturday than it was Sunday.

Of the 32 states that allow it, the length of the in-person early voting period varies by state from four days to 45. The average is 19 days.

There will be 20 days of in-person early voting in Ohio this year.

For more than a year some of the most prominent and liberal members of the U.S. House, including Rep. Marci Kaptur and civil rights leaders such as Rep. John Lewis, have been promoting a bill that would require every state to offer early voting. The bill would require only 15 days of early voting and would not mandate early voting the Sunday before the election.

Again, there will, be 20 days of early voting in Ohio this year.

For the last half-century,the Akron Beacon Journal has been the state’s most consistently Democratic big-city newspaper.

In a Feb. 26 editorial headlined “Ample Time,” the Beacon Journal labeled Husted’s early voting edict “the product of Democrats and Republicans crafting a worthy compromise, putting aside the calculated outrage and hollow claims, finding a middle ground that works for all counties.”

FitzGerald and his colleagues face gale-force political headwinds in this campaign, not the least of which are a Democratic president with declining popularity and a gigantic Republican advantage in fundraising.

History doesn’t offer them much hope, either.

In the two decades beginning in 1970, Democrats won 81.5 percent of the elections for statewide executive offices. In the six statewide elections since 1990, they’ve won an abysmal 25.8 percent.

If Democrats think voter suppression claims can lead them to victory in 2014, that losing streak will get even longer.

Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.