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LOCAL News :: Elections & Legislation

Proto-Fascist Update #3: GOP Vote-Stopping in Ohio

Here's a on-the-spot report from a friend of CAWI's on how the GOP is using hardball, quasi-legal tactics with a racist edge to stop voters in Toledo, Ohio
How the GOP is Trying to Stop Voters in Toledo

Six Republicans, encouraged by national Republican policy of challenging voters in Democratic areas and including one University of Toledo Republican student leader, have challenged the voting rights of over 930 Lucas County citizens, mostly apartment dwellers in the traditionally Democratic city of Toledo. The list includes soldiers currently serving in Iraq, vets and senior citizens, a military recruitment officer, a UT student who is actually a Bush/Cheney volunteer (she complained about her party members wrongly including her among potential Democratic voters on the Friday night local CBS news), and at least four University of Toledo professors. It includes many people with African-American and Latino sounding names, including the UT Latino student advisor.

It also includes my wife, Alice Frye. My wife and I live at the same place and registered around the same time. She was challenged and I was not. If any Republican mail was truly sent out and returned, the supposed basis for this challenge, I should have received such a letter but never did. I have talked to many people in my neighborhood and none of them have received this mysterious Republican mailing. This shows that the Republican Party's challenging policies and practices are dangerously flawed. It also makes many of us suspect that other factors, possibly even the desire to harass and intimidate Democratic supporters, determined their selection. Was my wife challenged and I not because she donated to the DNC (publicly available information) while I had not?
Others among the challenged told me that they have donated to the DNC, are parents or children of people who donated to the DNC, and a number even voted Democratic in the primary. It seems stupid to challenge people who are already politically motivated, yet this possibility should be investigated.

Alice's challenger does not even live in Toledo but in Waterville, Ohio. She never tried to contact us. She knows nothing about us, we have never met or heard of her, and yet she saw fit to issue a totally unjustified challenge. The form was even mailed at the last possible moment so as to arrive as close to the election as possible. We have had to take time out of our lives to deal with a frivolous charge and much of our week has been wasted with a time-consuming and worry-producing process of contacting various officials and lawyers. This included attending a board of elections hearing in order to make sure that Alice can still vote. Luckily, the challenges have now been checked in court much to Republican chagrin. But what about those individuals who were not able to show up at a last minute meeting and now believe they cannot vote? Adding further insult to the injury, many concerned people showed up at this board meeting in order to guarantee their voting rights and the Republican board members did not allow them to voice their complaints.

In addition, the challenge form also clearly states that misusing it is a felony. We hope these people will be investigated because voter intimidation and suppression should not be tolerated in a free society. We also hope that the College Republicans of the University of Toledo, especially its president who signed a number of these challenges, be investigated by the university for this group's role in these unethical and possibly illegal activities. One has to wonder about the morals, values and character of people who seek to deny voting rights to their fellow citizens. The Republican Party and its leaders should be ashamed of their hubris in encouraging their supporters to undermine our political process.

Eric Nelson Department of Philosophy University of Toledo
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Dr. Eric S. Nelson Department of Philosophy University of Toledo Toledo, OH 43606-3390 homepages.utoledo.edu/enelson5/default.htm
 
 

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