I'm plagiarising myself (that's still okay, right?) from a post on a message board; I stole the following story from Metafilter; and I edited my original editorializing because this is my blog and I can use all the invective I want:
Daily Kos reports that with less than a week before registration ends, Ohio's Secretary of State, Republican Ken Blackwell, is calling on districts to reject and replace voter registration forms sent in on paper of the wrong weight.
The ostensible reason for this order is to insure that the applications can make it through the postal system without being damaged. The Secretary didn't point to any examples of voters who were stupid enough to mail regular weight paper as a postcard, nor did he cite examples of complaints from the Postal Service that this has been a problem. Never mind also that the applications he wants thrown out have already been delivered to the election boards safely.
And then of course there's this:
The analysis by The New York Times of county-by-county data shows that in Democratic areas of Ohio - primarily low-income and minority neighborhoods - new registrations since January have risen 250 percent over the same period in 2000. In comparison, new registrations have increased just 25 percent in Republican areas.
In addition, the Secretary's office has moved to prevent voters from casting ballots in the wrong polling place as long as they are in the correct county, even though this is the way it's been done in previous Ohio elections.
I'm apalled by this. Whether this is just misguided election reform (shyeah right) or a concerted effort to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters (ding ding ding!), it should be legally actionable. Preventing people from voting with last-minute rule changes is unconscionable no matter which side the voters (or you) are on. The attacks are so numerous, and so sneaky and unexpected; what can we even do to make sure our votes count? Even if we do get to vote, those fucking Diebold machines can always be counted on for a little unrecorded vote-tampering. The aftermath of this election is going to be ugly, no matter who wins. Or "wins."
Blackwell's contact information:
J. Kenneth Blackwell-R
180 E. Broad St., 15th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
614-466-3910
E-Mail: blackwell@sos.state.oh.us