Ohio is truly in the hotseat of the election, what with Sarah Palin visiting with “small town America” in the Buckeye state yesterday, Barack Obama speaking in Toledo today, and a rash of concern cropping up again about the possiblity of voter fraud and registration issues.
Palin used her “folksy” schtick to appeal to the members of a small Ohio town whose size, the USA Today article linked above notes, is not much different from that of the Alaskan town of which she used to be mayor. The article in USA Today is brief, but I am sure that Palin’s charm worked its ways on at least some of the audience members; I may not like her, I may not be voting for her ticket, but I’ll hand it to her for making the most of what’s she’s got. Where Palin lacks in education, experience, and expertise, she makes up for in a down-home charming manner that can really grow on a person if he or she is perhaps undecided even 22 days before the election. People can make fun of her all they want, but the truth is that she’s come a long way from playing the flute on a beauty pageant stage and she certainly didn’t get there by marrying Donald Trump or winning the lottery–we may not agree with her politics or like what she says or does, but we have to admit that she has clawed her way to the top and that’s just gosh darn impressive–you betcha it is.
I digress (somewhat). Obama also hit Ohio today, stopping in Toledo to speak about the economy. The middle class is still the bread and butter of Obama’s constiuency and he focused on this and employment today in his speech. With Obama as President, companies can (hopefully) count on tax benefits as a reward for hiring American citizens instead of outsourcing to other countries. Furthermore, the CNN.com article says,
“Under the Obama plan, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury would provide much the same kind of backing to state and municipal governments as the recent federal bailout did to the commercial credit market.
‘We can’t wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling right now — who don’t know if their job or their retirement will be there tomorrow; who don’t know if next week’s paycheck will cover this month’s bills,” Obama said. “We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle-class … and we need to do it right now.'”
That’s the policy talk for today–now we turn to issues with voting in everybody’s favorite swing state. Cincinnati.com reports today that voting fraud, similar to the problems with fake and ineligible registrations that happened in 2004, is a major concern for the current election as well. Republicans have placed the blame on Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s Secretary of State, for allegedly “favoring” the Democratic Party with her policy decisions. Check out this excerpt from the article:
“Ohio Republicans sought, unsuccessfully, to close a week-long window that ended Oct. 6 in which Ohioans could register and immediately cast a ballot. Their main argument was that Ohio law did not permit same-day registration and voting. But a secondary argument was that the process would make it too easy to commit voting fraud because voters could cast ballots before having their registration information verified.
That window was viewed as a benefit to Democrat Barack Obama, as the campaign and outside groups transported college students, low-income voters, the homeless and minorities to the polls.
Senate Majority Leader Ray Miller, a Democrat from Columbus, said he respects the Ohio Republicans’ vigilance against voter fraud or corruption. “But if the Ohio Republican Party, in the interest of partisan advantage, successfully undermines public confidence in Ohio elections, democracy may be the loser,” Miller said.”
An informal poll on the website reveals that the majority (of the mere 249 individuals polled, but still) is, in fact, concerned about the reliability of the voting process in their state.
As fascinating as the study of Ohio as one of the most–if not the most–influential swing states is, the deterioration of democracy into this obsession with a few states over the entire populace is pathetic. The evidence of voter registration fraud only further debilitates the state of American democracy.
But hey, at least we can easily figure out how to look like our candidates, even if we can’t figure out out to democratically elect one to office.
Putting the OH! back in Ohio 