Supreme Court Rules Against Republican Effort to Block Newly Registered Voters at Polls
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Related subjects: Denver Lessing, Judicial Rulings, The Vote, U.S. Politics, Vote 2008 Comments (1)
The US Supreme Court has reversed an order to the state of Ohio to allow the Republican party to organize an effort to question or counter the right of newly registered voters to cast ballots on election day. The Republican party had sought to repeat its efforts in the 2004 election, which led to 300,000 voters being denied the vote, in a state Bush carried by just 190,000 votes, and had won the right to challenge at least 120,000 registrations, possibly more than 200,000.
According to The New York Times:
The Supreme Court, in a brief, unsigned decision, said lower federal courts in Ohio should not have ordered the secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, to turn over the information. The court acted just before a deadline requiring Ms. Brunner to act set by a federal judge in Columbus.
The ruling [PDF] sides with the argument for states’ voter registration processes being independent of reference to federal databases. The governments of several “battleground” Republican-controlled states had been questioned for using federal databases in ways not intended by law, without permission from citizens or courts, to cross-reference voter registrations and disqualify any voters whose information appeared slightly different (including misspellings, misplaced digits in addresses or phone registries, etc.).
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The 2002 Help America Vote Act provided for cross-referencing within a state’s own records, such as driver’s license registrations. In Ohio, the Republican party sought to force the Secretary of State to provide information about all mismatches to poll workers, as part of an effort to challenge the right of newly registered voters to cast their ballots. Poll workers could require voters to cast provisional ballots, which may never be counted, depending legal action to reverse the challenge to the voters’ right to cast an official ballot.
The Supreme Court’s ruling found that HAVA likely did not contemplate private groups (in this case the Republican party) from filing lawsuits to force state governments to implement specific policy initiatives as enforcement measures for the law. The ruling could affect lower courts’ decisions regarding similar attempts by the Republican party to challenge new registrations in other states.
Ohio’s Sec. of State, Jennifer Brunner, told the press: “Our nation’s highest court has protected the voting rights of all Ohioans, allowing our bipartisan elections officials to continue preparing for a successful November election,” adding that “We filed this appeal to protect all Ohio voters from illegal challenges and barriers that unfairly silence the votes of some to the advantage of others.”
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from Daily Kos:
Government of the (Republican) people, by the (Republican) people, for the (Republican) people
by georgia10
Mon Oct 27, 2008 at 10:00:04 AM PDT
“I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
Ronald Reagan may have thought those words to be “terrifying” for ordinary Americans, but for members of the modern Republican Party, those words tickle the ears and raise hope in the heart. The cavalry has arrived for the embattled GOP, and three letters are emblazoned on its uniform — D.O.J.
The Republican tactic of crying “vote fraud!” to suppress the vote began long ago, and only now is culminating in a long, drawn out whine of unprecedented proportions. Indeed, over a year ago, before the focus on ACORN, the RNC was peddling the “vote fraud” card. [Full Text]