No in-person primary voting for you

Unless you are homeless or disabled, there will be no in-person primary voting for you. (See our previous blogpost here.)  Cleveland.com reports that a judge has upheld the changes to the election timetable and method of voting – mostly by mail.  Not good news, but here it:

A federal judge on Friday declined to step in and change a plan Ohio lawmakers unanimously approved to alter the state’s primary election, which will now be held almost solely by mail through April 28 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Michael Watson ruled that a coalition of voting-rights groups that filed suit Monday over the Ohio legislature’s plan did not show that the rights of residents would be disenfranchised enough to override the law.

Even if the plan, named House Bill 197, isn’t perfect, that’s not enough to intervene, the judge wrote in his 27-page opinion.

“The Constitution does not require the best plan, just a lawful one,” wrote Watson, whose courtroom is in Columbus. “. . .

. . .

. . . He said the state is not in violation of the National Voting Rights Act.

Here’s one part I find particularly objectionable:

[Watson] said voters had many chances to vote either at boards of elections or by mail prior to the original primary date.

Voters who planned to vote on Election Day at their polling place are penalized for not voting early.

Read the rest of the report here.

# # #

In the news: Richard Cordray, candidate for Governor of Ohio

art credit: telegraph.co.uk

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was set up under the Obama administration, and it was designed to be exempt from checks and balances and accountability. An overview at Competitive Enterprise Institute sums it up in an article titled “Unconstitutionally Structured and Harmful to Consumers”; article is here.

Cleveland.com has a report by Eric Heisig with the headline

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau loses lawsuit

against Cleveland debt collection firm

A federal judge has ruled against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a lawsuit it filed against Cleveland debt collection firm Weltman, Weinberg & Reis.

. . .

Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent wrote in an opinion released Wednesday that the CFPB did not prove that Weltman, Weinberg & Reis sent demand letters that were false, misleading or deceptive.

The CFPB sued Cleveland firm Weltman, Weinberg & Reis in April 2017, saying the firm's attorneys were not sufficiently involved in sending out the letters, even though the letters prominently mention they were sent out by a law firm and occasionally raise the possibility of legal action for unpaid debts.

. . .

Nugent also wrote that Weltman, Weinberg & Reis sent out similar letters when Alan Weinberg was hired to collect debts for the state of Ohio between 2009 and 2011 under then-Attorney General Richard Cordray.

The point was significant because Cordray, a Democrat who is campaigning for Ohio governor, was the head of the CFPB between 2012 and last year. He was at the federal agency when it sued Weltman, Weinberg & Reis and authorized the lawsuit, the judge wrote.

The Cleveland firm considered calling Cordray as a witness during the trial, which took place before and after Ohio's primary elections, but chose not to do so.

…

Read the rest here. I haven’t followed this one, but I would not trust the CFPB under Cordray from here to the door. From the Wikipedia page:

On May 21, 2018, the bureau was weakened after US President Donald Trump signed into law Congressional legislation repealing the enforcement of automobiles lending rules.  On May 24, 2018, Trump signed into law further Congressional legislation exempting dozens of banks from the CFPB's regulations.

I wish President Trump would just shut the thing down. And Mr. Cordray is running for Governor. 

# # #