Verifying signatures on absentee ballots: a win in Ohio

 

Andrew J. Tobias reports at cleveland.com:

A group of voting-rights activists has suffered a legal defeat
in their attempt to challenge Ohio's system of verifying signatures
on absentee ballot applications.

A federal judge has ruled Ohio’s system of verifying signatures on absentee ballot applications is not burdensome enough to be struck down as illegal, rejecting arguments made by a coalition of voting-rights groups that sued the state.

U.S. District Judge Michael Watson wrote that while Ohio’s signature-matching requirements impose a “moderate" burden on voters, they have other options to cast a ballot if their vote is improperly rejected, including casting a provisional ballot on Election Day. He agreed with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose that the state has a legitimate interest in promoting an orderly and secure election, justifying that burden.

. . .

Watson’s ruling is technically just an early loss for the voting-rights groups, which could continue to seek a trial or appeal to a higher court. But it makes it significantly less likely their case will succeed, especially given that the election is only 37 days away.

Read the full report here.

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Circumventing the Electoral College

Jeff Parker cartoon credit: capoliticalreview.com

The 2020 elections will probably involve so many types of corruption that Al Capone would be envious. Stuffing the ballot box. Voters casting ballots more than once, including in different states. Voting early and often. Counting the votes of the deceased. Tampering with electronic voting machines. There are efforts to grant felons the right to vote – while they are serving their sentence. The Democrats don’t play by the rules, so they are busy trying to change the rules.

At American Thinker, David Horowitz of FrontPage Magazine explains the Democrat party’s plan to end-run the Electoral College. It’s a must-read. Here’s the opener:

While you were sleeping, the Democrats (abetted by some deviant Republicans) have been working on a plan that would destroy the diversity of the American political system and bring the nation to the brink of civil war. The plan is called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and tens of millions of dollars have already been spent over several decades trying to implement it. Fourteen blue states and the District of Columbia have already joined the Compact, which means they are 70% on the way to making their proposal the law of the land.

The Democrats’ plan is designed to eliminate the influence of the Electoral College in choosing the nation’s president, no doubt because while Hillary won the popular vote she failed [to] win necessary votes in the Electoral College. Eliminating the influence of the Electoral College would end the diversity now embodied in the federal system with its division of powers between Washington and the fifty states. 

The fact that a party which presents itself as a defender of diversity should be leading the charge to eliminate the nation’s most powerful source of diversity should be all that is required to understand the threat their agenda poses to what has been the nation’s constitutional way of life for 232 years.

The Electoral College and the division of powers are features of the Constitution. But the National Popular Vote movement does not propose to amend the Constitution because it doesn’t have the votes to do that. Instead, in the name of “democracy,” it proposes to circumvent the Constitution and its requirement of large national majorities for amending what has been the fundamental law of the land. Think how Orwellian that is, and how concerning it should be for anyone believing the Founders created the most practical, realistic, democratic, diverse and successful polity the world has ever seen.

This is how the Democrats’ circumvention of the Constitution and its provision for an Electoral College would work. Instead of abolishing the College, which would require the support of two-thirds of the states, they are hoping to put together a coalition of states representing 270 electoral votes that would agree to award all their votes to whoever wins the national vote. In other words, if the popular vote is won by 10 votes, every state in the Compact would award 100% of their votes to that party, even if a majority of the voters in their state voted against them.

The bottom line (and goal) of this devious plan is to eliminate the influence of rural voters or “Middle America” and create an electoral lock for the large urban population centers, e.g., California and New York, which would then decide the direction of the country.

The rest of Mr. Horowitz's article is here. The good news: Ohioans dodged a bullet this time, as the organizers dropped plans to try to get the issue on the ballot in November 2019:

[April 2019] Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced in a press release Tuesday that the amendment had been formally withdrawn by its backers, Ohioans For Making Every Vote Matter. The group said in a statement there wasn't sufficient time to gather enough signatures to qualify for the Nov. 5, 2019 ballot.

On Twitter, LaRose called the decision "nothing but good news." 

"The only thing this flawed amendment would have accomplished is to make sure your vote for president is essentially meaningless," he wrote.

The bad news: This issue surely will not go away.

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Ohio’s incoming elected officials

Cleveland.com has a handy reference page, compiled by Laura Hancock, to “Meet your Newly Elected Ohio Officials”; they’ll be sworn in next month. Click here.

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Ohio Secretary of State and election integrity

From Ballotpedia:

Heading into the 2018 election, the sitting secretary of state is Jon Husted (R), who was first elected in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014. Husted is prevented by term limits from seeking election to a third term in 2018.

State Senator Frank LaRose is the GOP candidate for Ohio Secretary of State. His website has his bio, and I am not pleased to read that he introduced legislation to make it easier for Ohioans to go online to register to vote. From LaRose’s website:

Senate Bill 318 will simplify absentee voting for all Ohioans by allowing voters to go online and request a vote-by-mail ballot. Currently, voters must mail requests for an absentee ballot to their local board of elections. This bill will make the process more efficient and more secure all while improving speed and convenience for voters. 

More efficient and secure? Or maybe more opportunities for voter fraud. (Remember the Soros-funded Secretary of State Project? To paraphrase Stalin, it’s not who votes; it’s who counts the votes.)

So conservative voters may be looking at another hold-your-nose election.

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell published an article at American Thinker, “The Left Wants to Control Ohio Elections,” that takes a longer view at the race for Ohio Secretary of State:

Hyper-partisan liberals once again have their eyes on Ohio.  This time, they want to take over the office in charge of making sure the state's elections are fair, honest and transparent.  Judging from the money they're spending and false outrage they're spewing, leftists will stop at nothing until they have one of their own in charge of counting votes in Ohio.  We have to stop them. 

. . .

[C]apturing the Ohio secretary of state's office is vital to the left's master plan of electing America's next president.  No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio.  A critical swing state, Ohio has voted for the winner in presidential races in twenty-eight out of the last thirty elections.  As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.

They have full access to the Clinton Money Machine and the Obama Operation.  While it may seem strange to witness millions of dollars pouring into a down ballot race in the heartland, there is a method to the Democrats' madness.  Delve below the surface, and you will see that the Democrats have their sights set on 2020, defeating Donald Trump, taking back the presidency.  Winning the [Ohio] secretary of state's race is a means to that end.

In the wrong hands, that office will become a de facto arm of the Ohio Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee.  Eric Holder and a laundry list of presidential wannabes know that.  Realizing what our rivals are capable of, Republicans should be on high alert.  They mean business.  They've got millions.  They don't fight fair.  It's that serious.

Their candidate for this high office is Kathleen Clyde.  She fits the pattern of coming from the far left of the political spectrum and being loud and confrontational in her style.  She is advancing the preposterous and obviously unconstitutional notion that if a presidential candidate does not release his taxes, he is immediately and irrevocably kept off the ballot in Ohio.  You can see how far-fetched and far left her agenda is.

 . . . 

The person the Democrats nominate, whoever it is, will target Ohio as the missing piece to the puzzle they need to claim the Oval Office so they can pick up where Barack Obama left off.  If they seize control of the Ohio secretary of state's office and they control the machinery of government in the Buckeye State, they will set to work pressing their advantage.  That is why Republicans are taking action: because winning the Ohio secretary of state's race is absolutely vital to the integrity of our elections and the future of our country.

You can read Blackwell’s full article here. I plan to re-post this shortly before Election Day.

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