Update: I just threw this diary up when I saw the post at Rachel's blog because I thought this community would be interested. There are a lot of questions showing up in the comments. I think a big help would be for you to watch the segment of Rachel's show last night about what's going on in a Ohio. I'm in the process of transcribing it. It takes time because I like include links to the articles that Rachel references in her segments. I've gone ahead and posted the video below the fleur-de-orange. I will add the transcript as soon as it is completed.If you've been watching The Rachel Maddow Show, you know Rachel has been hot on the trail of Ohio's Republican Secretary of State, Jon Husted, who is doing everything he can to help the GOP suppress the vote in Ohio.Update II: Transcript added with the video below the fleur-de-orange
Steve Benen, who manages Rachel Maddow's blog, has all the details about this latest affront to voters in Ohio:
Remember, voting in Montgomery County, Ohio, went very smoothly four years ago, with local officials running a relatively hassle free, trouble free election. Democrats and Republicans on the local board of elections expanded early voting opportunities, and turnout went up considerably.The problem -- if you want to call it that -- is that President Obama won in Montgomery County and in Ohio statewide, leading Buckeye State Republicans to start changing the rules, making it harder for voters to participate in their own democracy.
But what makes Montgomery County special is the efforts of Ritchie and Lieberman.
When Ohio Republicans decided to create new voting restrictions, they saw it as imperative to narrow the early-voting window. After a series of controversies, Husted eventually ordered every Ohio county to adopt the same hours-of-operation for early voting in the weeks preceding the election.
But, and this is key, the directive only applied to weekdays, leading Ritchie and Lieberman in Montgomery County to push once again for the weekend voting opportunities that worked so well for the community four years ago.
And for that, they were fired.
Frontpage News at The Columbus Dispatch
H/T here4tehbeer:
Secretary of State Jon Husted today fired a pair of Democrats from the Montgomery County Board of Elections for their votes to defy his directive on in-person early voting.Dennis Lieberman and Thomas Ritchie Sr. had 27 years combined experience on the board, but they ran afoul of Husted more than a week ago when they voted for weekend early voting hours and then refused Husted’s order to go back into session and rescind the motion.
Husted fires election officials for votes that defied his directive
Voters of Ohio Fight Back!
Video the Vote is helping Color of Change's campaign to tell Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to restore weekend voting hours, by signing the petition at colorofchange.org and texting "OHIO" to 225568.