Election Day: it's off: UPDATES

UPDATE:  It’s off!   (See here.)

As of 11:25pm, the election is OFF.  Here’s Ed Driscoll at Instapundit:

NOW WHAT? Judge Denies Ohio Gov’s Request to Delay Primary, But Poll Workers Say They Won’t Be Ready.

UPDATE: “Minutes ago Gov. Mike DeWine defied a judge’s earlier ruling that the primary must go on tomorrow. He announced on Twitter that his director of Public Health, Amy Acton, will order the polls closed tomorrow due to a ‘health emergency.'”

Is that it? Ohio Christian Alliance reported earlier this evening:

With the unprecedented measures that have been implemented by federal and state government agencies, tomorrow's election has been postponed. More information will be available on the Secretary of State's website and from the Governor's office.

As of 10 pm Monday night, I have not been able to confirm that report via the Board of Elections or the Secretary of State website.

Ohio Value Voters reported that the March 17 election is ON as scheduled.

Is it on or off?  ON (if pollworkers show up)?  This latest from Paula Bolyard at PJ Media who reports that the election is proceeding as scheduled on March 17:

CHAOS: Judge Denies Ohio Gov's Request to Delay Primary—

AFTER Poll Workers Told Not to Set Up Polling Locations

Update 9:45 p.m.: Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican, sent out a memo to members asking them to inform their constituents that the election will go on as planned Tuesday. "To my knowledge, the court is closed until 8:30 AM tomorrow and polls open prior to that," he wrote. "You should instruct your constituents that the Election is scheduled to occur March 17 as set by Ohio Law."

Here's more about what we know about Ohio's primary elections, scheduled for today, March 17 (reprinted from this blog, published yesterday):

Headline from cleveland.com:

Judge denies request to delay Ohio primary election until June over coronavirus

People who want the election postponed may appeal. It’s still being decided whether an appeal is possible.

According to my conversation with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, none of this confusion has been clarified; the BoE spokesperson recommended checking the website for the Ohio Secretary of State for any updates;  click here. 

Yesterday's blog with more details of all this confusion is here. 

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Ohio Primary Election postponed? Updates

image credit: kpcw.org.

UPDATE 10pm: Ohio Christian Alliance is reporting:

With the unprecedented measures that have been implemented by federal and state government agencies, tomorrow's election has been postponed. More information will be available on the Secretary of State's website and from the Governor's office.

As of 10 pm Monday night, I have not been able to confirm that report via the Board of Elections or the Secretary of State website.

Earlier updates ---

UPDATE 7:53pm:  Headline fromcleveland.com:

Judge denies request to delay Ohio primary election until June over coronavirus

People who want the election postponed may appeal. It’s still being decided whether an appeal is possible.

So as of 7:53pm Monday, March 16, it is still unclear as to whether the polls will or will not be open on Tuesday. 

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UPDATE:  Crawl on Fox 8 News Cleveland at 4:12pm:

Voting in Ohio To Be Extended to June 2

UPDATE: The information on the Ohio Secretary of State Website suggests polls will NOT be open tomorrow:

Based On New Public Health Guidance, Larose Recommends Suspension Of In-Person Voting On March 17, Moving Election Day To June 2

And here's how this blog originally started:

Headline from cleveland.com:

Gov. Mike DeWine wants to postpone Ohio’s Tuesday primary election till June 2 due to coronavirus.

Ohio becomes the third state, after Louisiana and Georgia to cancel its primary.

The wording is odd (“wants to postpone” vs “to cancel”).  Then:

Less than 24 hours before it was to have taken place, Ohio officials are seeking to delay the state’s presidential primary election until June 2, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday.
. . .

Between now and June 2, mail-in voting would continue, if the judge approves the move.

The Hill is reporting:

Ohio governor calls for delaying Tuesday's primary until June

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said Monday he would back a lawsuit aiming to delay the state's presidential primary until June because of the growing threat of the coronavirus that has already infected thousands of people around the country.

(One assumes that this decision was put off until the last minute because Gov. DeWine was so busy closing down Ohio restaurants, bars, theaters, sports events, parades, etc.)

UPDATE 4:20: According to my conversation with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, none of the confusion has been clarified; the BoE spokesperson recommended checking the website for the Ohio Secretary of State for any updates;  click here.

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St. Patrick’s Day: no parade, just voting

photo credit: lagunabeat.com

Cleveland.com reports that the traditional Cleveland downtown St. Patrick’s Day parade is cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus.  But polling places will be open.  The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has posted all polling locations here;  there is another page, here, that lists locations recently changed or added.

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No rallies this evening

Yesterday, I blogged about Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA), who complained that President Donald Trump was putting “his most ardent supporters at risk” by not canceling his upcoming political rallies in light of the current coronavirus outbreak. No mention of Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders cancelling their campaign rallies.  But both of them just did. Breitbart reports:

Bernie Sanders Cancels Cleveland Rally Over Coronavirus Concerns

And over at cleveland.com:

A rally by Sanders’ rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, also scheduled for Tuesday night in Cleveland, was also called off.

Is the Coronavirus the reason?  If so, will future rallies also be cancelled?

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Hypocrisy on display: Coronavirus and rallies

photo credit: The Nation 

Pam Key at Breitbart reports:

Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) complained Sunday on MSNBC that President Donald Trump was putting “his most ardent supporters at risk” by not canceling his upcoming political rallies in light of the current coronavirus outbreak.

Speier said, “I don’t think the president is capable of telling us the truth about the coronavirus. And I regret saying that. I think we have to rely on the scientists who are attempting to tell the truth even when they have to contradict the president.”

She added, “The fact that he is not willing to cancel his various rallies suggests that he is willing to place even his most ardent supporters at risk because we’re supposed to stay six feet away from other persons in order to mitigate the exchange of those viruses. I think that he is showing, unfortunately, why he is so ill-prepared to guide our country during this time of the crisis.”

Uh huh.  But as we read at cleveland.com, both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are holding rallies in Cleveland on Tuesday, at the Huntington Convention Center and at Tri-C at East 30th.  See here and here.  No comment from Rep. Jackie Speier.

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Trump rally announced ~ Toledo Jan.9

This from cleveland.com earlier today:

The president is set to hold a rally on Thursday, Jan. 9 at Toledo’s Huntington Center, according to a Trump campaign release. Doors open at 3 p.m.; the rally itself is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Tickets are free, but attendees must register online to reserve them. There’s a limit of two tickets per cell-phone number.

The president is set to hold a rally on Thursday, Jan. 9 at Toledo’s Huntington Center, according to a Trump campaign release. Doors open at 3 p.m.; the rally itself is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Tickets are free, but attendees must register online to reserve them. There’s a limit of two tickets per cell-phone number.

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The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is hiring

Via Mary Kilpatrick at cleveland.com:

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is hiring.

The board is looking for poll workers to help out on Election Day, Nov. 5. They’re especially in need of Independent and Republicans to work on bi-partisan teams at voting locations across the county.

Workers can earn up to $200. To apply call the Poll Worker Hotline at 216-443-3277 or visit the board’s website.

In the election, Cuyahoga County is asking voters to approve a charter amendment that would keep the sheriff as an appointed position but grant the office greater autonomy and bolster council’s oversight. Cuyahoga Community College is asking voters to approve a .4-mil property tax increase on top of an existing a 1.9-mil property tax that’s also up for renewal.

The ballot includes 69 school and municipal issues, in communities like Euclid, Cleveland Heights and Parma.

More information here.

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Are You Registered To Vote?

From cleveland.com:

Monday [October 7] is the deadline to register to vote for November’s election, or for existing registered voters to submit updates.

Either process can be completed online at this link if the person has an Ohio driver’s license or an official state ID. Otherwise, paperwork can be completed in person or by mail.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections will stay open until 9 p.m. Monday to accept registrations, spokesman Mike West said. The office is on the east side of downtown, at East 30th Street and Euclid Avenue.

West said registrations can also be completed at any library. He said as long as the card is filled out and dated by the deadline, it will be accepted if it arrives over the next several days.

About 7.7 million Ohioans are registered to vote, though nearly 200,000 were recently purged from the voting rolls for inactivity. You can check the database at this link to see if your name, or the name of someone you know, was removed.

Contact information for each county elections board in Ohio can be found at this link.

Ohio election calendar is here.

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Ohio HB 6: keep it or repeal it

Is this mailer true or false?

The other day, I was asked to sign a petition to get a Repeal of Ohio HB 6 on the ballot. You may be asked also. Here’s one report from about a week ago posted at JD Supra:

. . . a group called “Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts” (OACB) has begun the process of placing a referendum on the November 2020 ballot to repeal the law. OACB took the initial required steps of submitting at least 1,000 signatures along with a summary of the proposed referendum to the Attorney General, and after revising and resubmitting the summary it was approved as of August 30, 2019, as “fair and truthful” with the necessary valid signatures as required by law. The petitioners must now submit 265,774 signatures of registered Ohio voters (from at least 44 of the 88 Ohio counties, with at least 3 percent of total voters from each of those counties) by October 21, 2019, to place the referendum on the November 2020 ballot. If OACB meets these requirements, HB 6 is stayed until Election Day 2020.

Read the rest of the JD Supra report with some analysis here. The ads and mailers about this controversial legislation are confusing – especially the claim that

China’s Communist regime could gain control of Ohio’s electricity grid if voters repeal House Bill 6

Both sides are spending a ton of money, the media is making a lot of money, and Cleveland.com concluded its editorial on the subject as follows:

The aggressive tactics and scaremongering by those who want to deny Ohioans a statewide vote on HB 6 must stop.  Now.  Chinese business loans don’t threaten Ohio. But demagogic campaigning unquestionably does.

Yes, but if the Editorial Board of cleveland.com is in favor of something, I am usually against it. Still, I found the comments section somewhat helpful. And I expect the campaigning will only increase over the next few weeks.

I’ve read through five or six other reports/analyses, pro and con, of the repeal vs enacting HB 6, and I confess I am still not clear as to which side has the better argument. This may be an instance when neither HB6 nor its repeal is good for Ohio. At any rate, I'll post again if I find a more accessible analysis.

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Another bad idea: renaming Columbus Day

Robert Higgs at cleveland.com reports:

A typically united City Council divided Monday night over a non-binding resolution calling for the city to recognize the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day rather than Columbus Day.

Councilman Basheer Jones proposed the resolution, saying he wished to recognize that a culture already existed in North America when Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in Oct. 12, 1492.

Council approves most proposed resolutions with little or no comment, but Jones’ proposal struck a nerve with colleagues Matt Zone, a second-generation Italian American, and Mike Polensek, who also is of Italian descent.

Zone spoke for several minutes in opposition to the resolution. He said that he grew up celebrating Columbus Day as a proud symbol of immigration to the United States. And it was a day important to Italian Americans who themselves had to endure bigotry in this country.

“It now is a universal theme with all people who come into this country,” Zone said. “One of the highest honors I ever had was in 2015 when I was the grand marshal in the Columbus Day parade.”

Zone said he had no problem doing something to honor indigenous people, but not at the expense of Columbus Day.

. . .

(Full report is here.) But it’s not about identity politics, in this case Native Americans vs Italians. It’s about using identity politics to push another attempt to erase the history of America. Yes, of course, Native Americans were here before Columbus, but it was the Old World coming to the New World that marked the inception of the early European settlements that led to the founding of the United States.

If you live in Cleveland, find your councilman here. The general phone number for council members is 216.664.2840. Give ‘em a call.

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Update: Electoral College in Ohio

Good news, for now. Ohio's presidential votes will not be counted in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact but will continue to cast those votes in the Electoral College. Cleveland.com reports:

Organizers have aborted their attempt to change Ohio’s constitution to award the state’s presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who wins Ohio.

J. Corey Colombo, a Columbus elections attorney working for the organizers behind the proposal, wrote a brief letter to Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday saying the group is withdrawing its petitions. The letter (click here for a PDF) did not offer an explanation, but Colombo’s law firm later issued a statement citing time constraints and the large number of signatures required to get the issue on the ballot.

Full report is here.

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Will Ohio voters support the elimination of the Electoral College?

image credit: calbuzz.com

This blog previously linked to J. Christian Adams’ "How To Steal and Election" – click here. And here's a headline today on cleveland.com:

Ohio’s electoral votes for president

would go to national popular vote winner

under proposed constitutional amendment

From Jeremy Petzer's report:

A proposed Ohio constitutional amendment to award the state’s presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote has cleared an initial hurdle toward making the statewide ballot this November.

. . .

So far, 11 states holding a combined 181 electoral votes have signed the compact. However, the compact doesn’t become binding until it’s joined by states representing at least 270 electoral votes (the minimum needed to win the presidency).

This is scary. Because the Democrat effort to essentially abolish the Electoral College in favor of the National Popular Vote initiative is gaining traction, any number of articles and essays have been popping up on conservative website. Here’s one from a week or so ago on American Thinker.

The latest states to succumb to this misguided attempt to destroy the Electoral College are Delaware and Colorado. If this issue gets enough signatures to get onto the Ohio ballot, Cleveland Tea Party will be sending out Action Alerts so we can let our representatives in Columbus know what we think.

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Sen. Portman’s finger to the wind

Either Sen. Portman has his finger to the wind, or he is stalling until he has enough cover to vote for the bill. Cleveland.com reports:

“I’m trying to come up with an alternative way to deal with this,” Portman told reporters on Tuesday. “I’ll make a decision next week, of course, when the issue comes before us, but I’m trying to get a result here. I know some in the media are very eager to see an immediate decision, but that’s not the way I look at this."

Portman, a Republican, says he supports Trump’s border security plan and wants to help him achieve it. But he wants it done in a way “that doesn’t lead to setting a bad precedent and having some of the funds be tied up in court.”

With that in mind, Portman says he’s seeking to change the wording of the House-passed resolution, to include language that would ensure the national emergency process is not being abused and to clarify that there is money from sources like drug seizures that Trump could use for the border wall.

“One way to handle this is to clarify that so there’s no need to go to an emergency,” said Portman. “And we’re looking at other ideas as well.”

Uh huh. Read the rest here. From the Wikipedia page:

Between the enactment of the National Emergencies Act in 1976 through February 15, 2019, 59 emergencies have been declared;[3] 27 have expired while 32 are currently in effect, each having been renewed annually by the president.

The list is here. Yes, Congress can vote to end an emergency, but the present southern border crisis is an emergency. Sen Portman, Sen. Mitch McConnell, et al, are once again just trying to obstruct President Trump's efforts.

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Bad news from Cuyahoga County Council

art credit: snopes.com

Last night, and despite considerable opposition, the Cuyahoga County Council succeeded in its latest power-grab, creating the “Commission on Human Rights.” Cleveland.com reports:

Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday passed legislation that protects the LGBTQ community from discrimination and creates a commission with the power to level fines if it finds discrimination did occur.

. . .

The legislation -- proposed by County Executive Armond Budish and sponsored by council members Dan Brady, Yvonne Conwell, Michael Houser, Dale Miller and Sunny Simon -- passed by an 8-3 vote along party lines. Republicans Nan Baker, Michael Gallagher and Jack Schron voted against the legislation.

. . .

It also creates the three-person Cuyahoga County Commission on Human Rights. If someone believes they have been discriminated against, they will be able to take that complaint to the commission, which could level civil penalties, award attorney fees, and order individuals to stop engaging in discriminatory practices if it determines that discrimination occurred.

. . .

An even larger crowd turned out for public comment again on Tuesday, with about 80 people speaking for and against the legislation as council prepared to pass it. County officials estimated that at least roughly 220 people attended the meeting.

Read the rest here. (Previous blogs here.)

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Debate scheduled: Sherrod Brown vs Jim Renacci

art credit: digitaltrends.com

From Andrew J. Tobias at cleveland.com (posted yesterday):

The two major candidates for this year's Ohio Senate race will debate in Cleveland next month, organizers for the event announced Monday.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and his Republican challenger, Rep. Jim Renacci, have agreed to debate at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14 in Cleveland, about three weeks before the November election.

The debate will be held at the Westfield Insurance studio theater at the Idea Center in Playhouse Square, according to the nonpartisan Ohio Debate Commission, which is organizing the event.

Two veteran journalists -- Ann Fisher, of WOSU public radio in Columbus and Russ Mitchell, anchor at WKYC-TV in Cleveland -- will serve as moderators. Tickets for the event are free, and organizers say more information about how to attend will be posted on their website, www.ohiodebatecommission.org, on Tuesday.

Stay tuned.

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Update on Richard Cordray campaign event

Cleveland Tea Party posted on Sept 5:

Guess who's coming to Cleveland? Cleveland.com reports:

Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Richard Cordray in Cleveland on Sept. 13, one of Obama's first electoral rallies of the 2018 midterms.

Cordray is a former Obama administration official, having served as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. . . .

The Cordray campaign did not immediately provide a time or location for the rally, other than to say in a press release it would be in the evening.

This event will be open to the public.

UPDATE from Cleveland.com:

The campaign for Richard Cordray released more details on Sunday about President Barack Obama's upcoming visit.

Obama will appear with Cordray, a Democrat running for governor, Thursday night at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District East Professional Center Gymnasium at 1349 E. 79th St. in Cleveland. An exact time for the program has not been announced, but doors to the public event will open at 5 p.m.

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Richard Cordray's upcoming campaign event

Guess who's coming to Cleveland? Cleveland.com reports:

Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Richard Cordray in Cleveland on Sept. 13, one of Obama's first electoral rallies of the 2018 midterms.

Cordray is a former Obama administration official, having served as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. . . .

The Cordray campaign did not immediately provide a time or location for the rally, other than to say in a press release it would be in the evening.

This event will be open to the public.

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Navy Week in Cleveland

Cleveland.com reports:

Navy Week, featuring a variety of events here to celebrate that branch of the service, will formally open with a 5 p.m. ceremony on August 28 at the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Public Square.

The free event will include remarks by Vice Admiral Forrest Faison III, and performances by the U.S. Fleet Forces Band and Navy Ceremonial Guard Drill Team.

For Navy Week, which runs through Sept. 2, the monument has created a special display focusing on three admirals who were Northeast Ohio natives.

More info and schedule of Navy Week events, including the Air Show, is here.

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Troy Balderson wins the race

art credit: thebigrocks.com

It’s finally official. Cleveland.com reports:

After millions of dollars spent, a presidential visit, and a lengthy vote certification process, Republican Troy Balderson has become the newest congressman representing Ohio's 12th District --  at least, for the next two months.

Balderson, a state senator from Zanesville, beat Democrat Danny O'Connor, the Franklin County recorder, by 1,680 votes, according to final vote totals from the Aug. 7 special election released Friday by elections officials.

. . .

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UPDATE: Cleveland.com ran an editorial applauding Secretary of State's John Husted "timely demolition of fraud rumors in 12th District results." This blogger was suspicious.

The Media’s war against President Trump escalates

image credit: thatbookwormgirl.wordpress.com

It is difficult to equate a “free press” with the dishonest Mainstream Media that produces negative propaganda round-the-clock. Legal Insurrection has the latest anti-Trump strategy:

Since election day in 2016, various media outlets have attacked Trump and his supporters on a near daily basis. Yet when Trump refers to fake news as an enemy of the people, they become outraged and claim he is attacking the free press.

The Boston Globe has decided to organize a protest in print, proving once again that the media thinks it is part of the resistance. Brian Stelter of CNN is pretty excited about this:

More than 100 newspapers will publish editorials decrying Trump’s anti-press rhetoric

“The dirty war on the free press must end.”

That’s the idea behind an unusual editorial-writing initiative that has enlisted scores of newspapers across America.

The Boston Globe has been contacting newspaper editorial boards and proposing a “coordinated response” to President Trump’s escalating “enemy of the people” rhetoric.

“We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration’s assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date,” The Globe said in its pitch to fellow papers.

The effort began just a few days ago.

As of Saturday, “we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days,” Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe’s deputy editorial page editor, told CNN.

The rest of the report is here. Sad to see that cleveland.com is on board the anti-Trump Train, such as here. Let's see if it runs an editorial tomorrow.

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