Shameful Husted Ohio's Avatar of Anti-Democracy

Jon Husted is fighting against a fair election this fall with every fiber of his being. He's long since surpassed Ken Blackwell in his contempt for the voting public. All that seems to matter to him is tweaking the process in every way he can think of to give Republicans an unfair edge. Yeah, he had to back down from the blatant inequality of denying urban counties extended early voting hours that were being allowed across the state to heavily Republican counties. But by "equalizing" the process in ways that benefit Republicans while denying everyone the opportunities that mostly Democrats avail themselves of, he's still got his thumb on the scale.

Here is a press release from the Ohio Democratic Party, updating the situation with the Franklin County Democratic Board of Elections members that Husted is trying to throw overboard for their purely symbolic vote for increased access to the ballot.

COLUMBUS - Montgomery County Elections Board members Dennis Lieberman and Tom Ritchie Sr. were recommended to be fired Monday by a hearing examiner for Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted because they voted on Aug. 17 to expand weekend voting hours in Dayton and their home county.

“It’s not justice when you already know the outcome of being put on trial. A hearing examiner appointed by SOS Husted has agreed with his boss. This is not news,” Lieberman said. “What’s really not fair is what is happening to voters in Montgomery County and all across this state. They are being denied the chance to vote on weekends and that’s wrong.”

Ritchie, a 17-year member of the board, said, “there is a demand for people to vote early in Dayton and Montgomery County and throughout Ohio. We were responding to that demand.”

In 2008, 11,000 voters cast early votes on weekends in Montgomery County and nearly 28,000 area residents voted early.

“We do not want to return to the long lines, the hours upon hours of waiting that took place in 2004 when J. Kenneth Blackwell was in Secretary Husted’s job,” Lieberman said. “Secretary Husted needs to follow Jennifer Brunner’s model in 2008 that led to a historic voter turnout and abandon Blackwell’s 2004 model that was a disaster and made Ohio a poster child for voter suppression.”

The two men will await SOS Husted’s decision, which is expected to come as early as tomorrow, and then confer with legal counsel before deciding next steps.