Adam: It's Easy to Cheat, Hard to Vote

When the final votes were tallied and the results announced in November 2008 Barack Obama was elected our nation's 44th president (of course only 58.2% of the voting age population (VAP) voted and of that, 52.9% voted for him.) Among the nations majority, Ohio had turned blue. 

But back in 2008 there had been news swirling about an organization called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN.) Leading up to the presidential election, ACORN had been accused of voter fraud. A subsidiary of the group was paid $800,000 by Obama's campaign to register voters for the 2008 primaries. Obama's campaign told CNN that it, ‘is committed to protecting the integrity of the voting process,’ and said it had not worked with ACORN during the general election.”

However for what it is worth, what the Republicans were calling ‘voter fraud’ was actually ‘voter registration fraud.’ Seeing as how none of them had attempted to vote yet (at the time).

Turning our eyes back towards Ohio, the republican party had started to turn up the heat on the then Democratic Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. “The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ordered Brunner to create a system to provide a list of newly registered voters whose Social Security numbers or driver's license numbers did not match their names. (in three days)” Secretary of State Brunner filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court blocked the Circuit Court order. Three weeks later Barack Obama was elected our nation's 44th president, (in Ohio 65.3% of the VAP voted and of that, 51.49% voted for him.) Ohio had turned blue. Republicans turned red.

In 2010 Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner sought the Democratic nomination for United States Senator instead of running for re-election. This meant the secretary of state spot was wide open, enter Jon Husted. Jon Husted, a graduate of Montpelier High School class of 1985. I remember the first time I learned of his existence. I was doing a field experience in a second grade class at Harmon Elementary in 2016. Every morning the elementary school would play video announcements followed by some local ‘celebrity’ saying the school’s vision. That’s when I first saw this ‘Thank you for smoking, Harvey Dent’ looking politician, nothing more than an afterthought to me. “How could this one insignificant state politician affect my life or the lives of others across the nation?” I thought to myself. He won the election flipping the secretary of state to republican and in 2011, he was sworn in.

The following year was another presidential election year. This time Ohio republicans were ready, newly equipped with Husted as their secretary of state they made their first move. Every county in Ohio has an election board with two republicans and two democrats. Husted allowed the countys to vote if they wanted early voting nights and weekends in their counties. County election boards in “Republican-leaning suburbs of Cincinnati, allowed people to vote for president beginning in October by going to a polling place in the evening or on weekends. But, in Cincinnati, Republicans on the county election board planned to end early voting in the city promptly at 5 p.m., and ban it completely on weekends. In counties likely to vote for President Obama, Republicans had voted against the extended hours, and newly elected Secretary of State Husted had broken the tie in their favor. (He said the counties couldn’t afford the long hours.) In counties likely to vote for Mitt Romney, Republicans had not objected to the extended hours.” These same restrictions were put in place for the other urban areas of Ohio, Cleveland, Columbus and Akron. However, “When the New York Times highlighted the distinctly non-uniform early-voting rules, Husted quickly passed a statewide rule setting uniform, extended early-voting hours in all 88 counties.” 

Husted was determined to use his political power in the 2012 election to flip the state back to red. Jon’s next move was to end early voting the weekend and Monday prior to the presidential election. the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied it. Husted and then Attorney General Mike DeWine tried the U.S. Supreme Court. They declined to hear the appeal. Thwarted a second time Husted then issued a directive to all 88 county boards of election, setting voting hours to:
Saturday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. 
Aaron Ockerman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials said, “In 2008, when there was no uniform rule for weekend voting, Franklin County set hours:
Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. 
before Election Day, when long lines stretched out of the county’s voting center at Veteran’s Memorial.” 

In addition, a “study examined voting in Cuyahoga County in 2008 using elections records and census data. It found that black voters and white voters cast early ballots at similar rates in 2008, but that blacks -- who accounted for about 29 percent of the overall vote -- cast more than 77 percent of the in-person early ballots. White voters casting early ballots were much more likely to vote by mail. Of the two types of early voting in Cuyahoga County, only in-person voting had been targeted for cutbacks, the study noted.” When the final votes were tallied and the results announced in November 2012 Barack Obama was reelected and remained our nation's president (of course only 54.9% of the VAP voted and of that, 51.1% voted for him.) Among the nations majority, Ohio had stayed blue. Husted turned red. 

He had managed to get reelected as Ohio secretary of state in 2014. And there was much work to be done to get this state back on the red track. Golden Week was created in 2005 with early voting legislation that allowed voters to cast absentee ballots up to 35 days before the election. But now after his reelection in 2014 “State Republican lawmakers approved Senate Bill 238 which reduced early voting by a week, thus eliminating “Golden Week.” It seemed like Jon was going to have better luck in his second term. But the state law was overturned in federal court. Jon was all to familiar with fighting the court systems to tip the scales in favor of republican votes. He appealed and got it overturned by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Things were looking up for Jon and his republican counterparts. Voter rights advocates, rather than appeal to the potential 4-4 supreme court (because republicans in Washington refused to confirm any justice nominated by President Obama), settled with Husted. The settlement “restored one day of Sunday voting and added weekday evening hours, but let stand the elimination of golden week. It also ensured that all counties will have the same voting schedule.” Some background to Golden Week: In 2012, more than 90,000 Ohioans voted during golden week. 157,000 Ohioans in total — disproportionately minorities — voted on the days that were cut. 

Husted’s attempt at allowing evening and weekend early voting for exclusively republican areas was nationally called out. His attempt at denying in-person early voting the weekend before the election was also defeated. But now he was able to settle a lawsuit that potentially rid Ohio of 157,000 votes. The 2016 presidential election was closing in. How was Jon going to turn this seemingly deep blue state back to the red of his party? If the majority of the voters weren’t going to willingly vote republican he’d have to try something else. That’s when the idea hit him: Use it or lose it. Flexing his power as chief elections official he decided to remove voters from registration lists if they had not cast a ballot since 2008. Husted said, “Those who don’t vote over a six-year stretch or respond to a postcard mailed to their address have only themselves to blame, ...If this is a really important thing to you in your life, voting, you probably would have done so within a six-year period.”

Where in the book of democracy does it state that those with the right to vote do not also have the right not to vote? Does choosing not to vote imply voting isn’t important? Do citizens of a democracy not have the right to choose which elections to participate in and which not? Jon had done it! He had found his ticket to allow his political party a fighting chance without having to update or change any of their unpopular views. Not only would this plan help for the 2016 election but the policy would stay in place long after he's gone forcing Ohio voters who miss an election to constantly scramble to re-register for all eternity. 

Six years sounds like a long time not to vote but in all reality those six years only included one presidential election and two midterms. Had a voter sat out (or rather been unable to vote because of limited early voting and long work hours) in the 2012 presidential election they would be purged from the voting rolls. Husted said in an interview, “You're inactive for two years, meaning that you've not voted, you've not done anything, we send you a card to say, ‘Hey, are you still registered to vote?’ And, ‘Are you still living at this address?” This means that if you had missed even one election you’re sent a card and given four years to reply. “Overall, 30,000 voters had been removed due to inactivity since 2012, a larger figure than Obama’s margin of victory that year.” “Ohio's 20 most populous counties purged more than 200,000 inactive voters, according to research by PBS NewsHour Weekend.”

INTERVIEWER:
Does this policy disenfranchise poor African-Americans?
JON HUSTED:
It actually has no race, gender, ethnicity component to it, because it treats every single voter exactly the same. And remember, if you receive one of these cards, it's because you haven't voted.
INTERVIEWER:
You don't think it's an unfair burden, requiring people who haven't voted for a while to make some kind of affirmative statement?
JON HUSTED:
The law says it's six years. The federal court agreement says it's six years. I can understand people who have policy disagreements. If you want to make it longer, change the law I'll follow the law.

The stage was set. Husted had his golden week stripped and his voters purged as the 2016 election neared. When the final votes were tallied and the results announced in November 2016 Donald Trump was elected our nation's 45th president (of course only 55.5% of the VAP voted and of that, 46.1% voted for him.) Among the nations majority, Ohio had flipped red. Jon had done it! Six years of hard work attempting to suppress voters had finally paid off. Jon had found his goose that laid the golden egg, purging voter rolls. “In its 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Ohio's policy is reasonable, even though the National Voter Registration Act prohibits canceling registrations for not voting. The conservative majority said that because Ohio sent out a mailing to previous non-voters, the failure to vote was not the sole criterion for being dropped from the rolls—giving Ohio a constitutional pass.” Jon was now untouchable.

Husted had voter rights activists panicked all over the state. In a stroke of genius “...the secretary of state’s office said it doesn’t keep a centralized record of voters purged or those who’ve been flagged for infrequent voting. Husted spokesman Sam Rossi referred data requests to individual county boards.” This way if activists wanted to help Ohioians re-register to vote they would have to drive all over the state attempting to obtain lists and track down these citizens in an effort to exercise their democratic right to vote. More than 40,000 Cuyahoga County voters were purged in 2015 alone. Across the state registrations were canceled in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at about twice the rate of Republican neighborhoods.

But Jon wasn’t done yet. A state election was approaching and he had his eyes set on something bigger than secretary of state. Jon had used his power to suppress democratic votes in the state then jumped on a republican ballot! Jon and his friend Attorney General Mike DeWine, who had worked with him to suppress votes years before, were now ticketed together with their sights on Governor and Lieutenant Governor. When the final votes were tallied and the results announced in November 2018 Jon Husted was elected Ohio's 66th lieutenant governor (of course only 50.9% of the VAP voted and of that, 50.4% voted for him.) 

I know you might be asking, “but what happened to the role of secretary of state?” Republican Frank LaRose took that place and in an attempt to continue the nearly entirely republican stranglehold on the state’s government you can rest assured the purges are continuing. “182,000 voter registrations were purged September 6th, 2019.” Leaving only 31 days until the registration deadline of October 7, 2019. As the purges continue some have been looking into the purge lists "The Dispatch, voting rights groups and others discovered problems, including a vendor error that resulted in about 1,600 registrations being improperly on the purge list." Now even if you had been voting religiously you may still be purged. So what has our boy Jon been up to in his new Lieutenant Governor position? In September the White House held a ceremony awarding medals of valor to six police officers who swiftly took down the mass shooter in Dayton. Lt. Gov Jon Husted attended the ceremony with fellow republican Donald Trump.

I was glad to be at the @WhiteHouse today w/Senate President @LarryObhof, Sen. @SteveHuffmanOH, Rep. @PhilPlummerOH40 to honor the heroes of the @DaytonPolice Dept. for their courage during the August shooting in the Oregon District. #DaytonStrong pic.twitter.com/uTXHDxz0mH

— Jon Husted (@JonHusted) September 9, 2019

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley was not invited.
Don't even get me started on gerrymandering in Ohio.


sources for this month's rant:
https://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/17/ohio.voting/
https://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/15/ohio.voters/index.html 
https://www.factcheck.org/2008/10/acorn-accusations/ 
https://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/09/acorn.fraud.claims/ 
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/overt-discrimination-in-ohio.html 
http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/06/jon-husted-the-most-powerful-man-in-the-ohio-vote/?iid=sl-main-lead 
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/us/politics/justices-reject-appeal-over-early-voting-in-ohio.html 
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2012/10/analysis_of_cuyahoga_county_vo.html 
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/ohio-voter-purge/485357/ 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-votingrights-ohio-insight-idUSKCN0YO19D?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social 
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/inside-ohios-fight-voting-rules 
https://www.journal-news.com/news/ohio-ranks-lower-than-most-states-voter-registration-voter-turnout/08PKVVtZRixUP5XxfNvBSM/?ecmp=journalnews_social_twitter_2014_sfp