House Committee to Put Justice’s Ohio Vote Investigation Under Microscope

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/10/17/house-committee-to-put-justices-ohio-vote-investigation-under-microscope/

by James Parks, Oct 17, 2007

In a report on TPM Muckraker, former Justice Department officials questioned the seriousness—or rather lack thereof—of an “investigation” by the department’s chief voting official, John Tanner, into reported problems at African American polling places in Ohio during the 2004 elections.

So what did Tanner find? If black voters had any problems accessing the ballot box, it’s pretty much their own fault. According to Tanner, Ohio’s African American voters faced long lines in the 2004 presidential election because blacks tend to vote at night while whites vote during the day when there are shorter lines. Now House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) says he intends to hold hearings to get to the bottom of what really happened in the so-called investigation.


Rep. John Conyers

In a statement, Conyers says he’s concerned about the extreme lengths Mr. Tanner went to in order to justify the reasons African Americans were not treated equally in the 2004 Ohio election. The Department of Justice—since the Voting Rights Act of 1965—has a responsibility to thoroughly investigate allegations of voter suppression and discrimination, like those made in Ohio in 2004.

In 2004 and 2006, voters in predominantly African American precincts in Ohio faced far longer lines than those in the more white Ohio suburbs. Investigations showed that Ohio officials placed fewer voting machines in some areas and in some instances even kept voting machines out of service causing long lines and fewer people voting.

In 2005, Conyers wrote a detailed report, What Went Wrong in Ohio, which cited several actions by then Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell—who also served as chairman of the Ohio Bush-Cheney campaign—that disenfranchised African American voters.

FULL story at link.

[DFW]

1. If their microscope is any good.....

I suspect they'll find nasty Republican germs.
I hope they have some strong legal disinfectant
handy. Like a couple of jail terms for Blackwell
and Rove. Tom Noe is sitting in jail right now. He
was small potatoes compared to Blackwell and Rove.
I think he could use the company.........