If you live in Butler or Warren counties in the Republican-leaning suburbs of Cincinnati, you can vote for president beginning in October by going to a polling place in the evening or on weekends. Republican officials in those counties want to make it convenient for their residents to vote early and avoid long lines on Election Day.
But, if you live in Cincinnati, you’re out of luck. Republicans on the county election board are planning to end early voting in the city promptly at 5 p.m., and ban it completely on weekends, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The convenience, in other words, will not be extended to the city’s working people...
This is just the latest alarming example of how Republicans across the country are trying to manipulate the electoral system by blocking the voting rights of their opponents. These actions have a disproportionate effect on blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities who struggled for so long to participate in American democracy.
It was no secret that Jim Tressel was running a dirty football program at Ohio State, but everyone from the fans and boosters to the University Administration loved him and defended him by simply pretending not to see what was happening right out in public. Mums the word, not just the fans but even the local media who decided not to do the simple investigation that Sports Illustrated finally did that ended it all. Buckeye nation reacted in shock and dismay at the NCAA penalties and acted like their program was a victim in the whole affair. (More about the guy in the red sweater vest's willfull ignorance and violations here)
So that the Ohio Tea Party /GOP is institutionalizing cheating in their electoral process comes as little surprise. Maybe decade after decade of having zero professional sports championships in their State has morphed the collective mentality in Ohio to accept cheating as a legitimate way to win. Maybe its the smoldering racism among the undereducated masses that leads them to collectively see no problem treating minorities as second class citizens as long as it gets a white male back in the White House. Maybe there are religious folk who feel it is their duty to defend God by electing Tea Party/GOP candidates and they're more than ready to cheat to do it.
My take is that its a toxic mix of ignorance, desperation, religious fanaticism, and racism that has institutionalized and mainstreamed outright cheating in Ohio politics.
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