Free Press Accuses Ohio GOP of Trying to Gut Election Protection on Way to Permanent National Domination

From Columbus Free Press:

Ohio GOP poised to gut election protection on way to permanent national domination
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
January 30, 2006

Ohio's GOP-controlled legislature is poised to pass---probably today (Tuesday, January 31) ---a repressive new law that will gut free elections here and is already surfacing around the US. The bill is designed to help end free elections and continue the process of installing the GOP as America's permanent ruling party.

Called HB3, the bill demands discriminatory voter ID, severely cripples the possibility of statewide recounts and actually ends the process of state-based challenges to federal elections---most importantly for president---held within the state.

In other words, the type of legal challenge mounted to the theft of Ohio's electoral votes in the 2004 election will now be all but impossible in the future.

Section 35-05.18 of HB3 requires restrictive identification requirements for anyone trying to vote in an Ohio election. Photo ID, a utility bill, a bank statement, a government check or other government document showing the name and current address of the voter will be required. This requirement is perfectly designed to slow down the voting process in inner city precincts. It's meant to allow Republican "challengers" to intimidate anyone who turns up to vote in heavily Democratic precincts. It will also virtually eliminate the homeless, elderly and impoverished from the voting rolls. Election protection advocates estimate this requirement will erase 100,000 to 200,000 voters in a typical statewide election. By way of reference, George W. Bush allegedly carried Ohio---and the presidency---by less than 119,000 votes in 2004.

The ID requirement is the direct result of intervention by two high-powered Republican attorneys with ties to the White House and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Congressman Bob Ney allowed the Bush-Cheney re-election national counsel Mark "Thor" Hearne to testify last March as a so-called "voting rights advocate." Hearne, whose resume shows no connection to voting rights organizations, was responsible for advising the Bush-Cheney campaign on national litigation and election law strategy during the 2004 election.

Complete article