UPDATE: The website is back up. The BOE says there are about 200 absentee ballots they are examining at this moment. The reason the information was removed was due to some concerns that peace officers had about their information being available to the public – an legal reason to shield that information. In the effort to remove several addresses, all were removed temporarily.
On Saturday, I posted about Vote Today Ohio leaders who live out of state but registered to vote in Franklin County, Ohio.
However, if you go now to the Franklin County website to look up registration information you will find that the address and other poling location information associated with registrants have been removed.
All addresses and absentee ballot information have been redacted for all voters. The statute 149.43 is Ohio’s public records law. This statute provides exceptions to the release of public records. Someone must have complained about the addresses being online although I can find nothing in the statute that would exempt voter registrations.
As a follow up, here are the funding sources of Vote Today Ohio.
You have to wonder how widespread the practice of Obama supporters from safe states heading to swing states is. There is a website that encourages people to make just these kinds of moves called Obamatravel.org. The page says it is not directly supported by the Obama campaign.
UPDATE: I should have known Palestra.net would have more on the out-of-staters.
No doubt, more to come…
Month: October 2008
Did Obama laud anti-Israel proponent Khalidi?
Lots of bloggers seem to think so. And the LA Times allegedly has the video. Will we see it before election day? Will it matter?
Read Gateway Pundit for the story…
Here’s the intro:
Introduction: The LA Times is holding a video that shows Barack Obama celebrating with a group of Palestinians who are openly hostile towards Israel. Barack Obama even gives a toast to a former PLO operative at this celebration. If the American public saw this side of Barack Obama he would never be elected president.
But, the media refuses to release this video.
Vote Today Ohio out of state leaders register in Ohio
Democrats have been downplaying Republican concerns about voter fraud but it appears that there are at least some reasons for their worries. Yesterday, Vote from Home folded operations in Ohio because it was learned that some of their members had indeed voter incorrectly. Their votes were disallowed. Some Obama workers have withdrawn their votes as well.
Another effort to organize voters is Vote Today Ohio. Co-founded by Tate Hausman, a political organizer and member of the Working Families Party in New York, Vote Today Ohio says that the group exists to bring unlikely voters into the polls and boasts that they are responsible for at least 3300 votes.
Watch this report from Palestra.net for the background.
The organization’s Facebook group page has this description:
Progressives from Ohio and all over the USA are banding together to turn out new and unlikely voters during Ohio’s Early Vote Period (up until Nov 3). Early votes are smarter and easier to cast, and they can’t be lost to long lines, broken machines, or GOP tampering on Election Day.
The window of opportunity is referred to as Golden Week:
What’s this “Golden Week?”
Ohio recently changed its voting laws in a way that creates an extraordinary opportunity for Democrats to win Ohio, and thus win the election. For a 7 day window, from Sept 30 – Oct 6, Ohio residents can register and vote early in all of Ohio’s 88 counties. That means we don’t need to spend double the time and energy registering folks, and then turning them out to vote a month later. During the Golden Week, it all happens in one fell swoop — so our energy and money works doubletime.
As far as I can tell, no one leading VTO is from Ohio or intends to remain in Ohio. The leaders listed on the Facebook group with their location are Tate Hausman, Amy Little (Poughkeepsie, NY), Billy Wimsatt (New York, NY), Pam Kapoor (Ottawa, ON), Yolanda Hippensteele (East Bay, CA). Ms. Little was the campaign manager for progressive democrat John Hall’s successful campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006.
Tate Hausman made it clear on his blog that he was going to Ohio, not to become a resident but to organize for Obama. And his blog makes it clear that he resides in New York City where he recently had a meet and greet for another Working Families Party member, Daniel Squadron.
He announced his new Vote Today Project project on September 11, 2008.
In my never-ending quest to make our government more progressive, I’ve gotten myself mixed up in an exciting new campaign. Actually, I’m running it.
He notes the transient nature of the effort.
(Note: This is going to be a super-intense campaign, without much time to blog, much less eat or sleep. Forgive me if I go radio silent for a while.)
As noted above, Mr. Hausman is a member of the Working Families Party. Like the New Party before it, the WFP seeks to encourage fusion voting, meaning allowing a candidate to represent more than one party. The political strategy of the Working Families Party also reprises the New Party via electing far left Democrats to replace centrists. Mr. Hausman describes the method:
My friends at the Working Families Party have chosen Daniel as one of their top races this year, because he could be a poster child for the WFP’s strategy of replacing “bad” Democrats (centrist, corporate, do-nothings) with “good” Democrats (progressive, responsive, high integrity).
While organizing here, at least three of the VTO people have registered to vote according to the Franklin County Board of Elections website. There registrations are here. As you will see, they have received absentee ballots to the 1979 N 4th street address.
Ms. Little’s registration is posted as an example. The other two are here (Hausman) and (Hippensteele).
I am not aware if there has been any official investigation into these registrations and I do not know if these individuals have actually voted. It does not appear that Mr. Hausman and Ms. Little intend to remain in Ohio and they reside in New York. I do not know what Ms. Hippensteele’s intentions are regarding the Buckeye state.
The broader concern is the potential for abuse. The reporting of Palestra.net (kudos to Tiffany Wilson and crew who have been all over this story) raises serious concerns about the integrity of the election in Ohio.
Palin policy speech today on special needs families
I wish I could have heard it but just down the road in Pittsburgh, Sarah Palin delivered a policy speech, on the topic of special needs and disabilities.
Her full remarks are here with video.
She has been much maligned for her special needs record. However, claims of cutting programs that I have researched have been false with most programs for special needs families receiving increases from her Alaska budgets.
Show and tell: New Party newspaper
If there are any doubters that Barack Obama was a member of the New Party in the 90s, this may clear it up.
From the New Zeal blog, here is a screen capture of the newsletter announcing the success of New Party member Barack Obama in his state senate election. Note the quote…
Socialist Bernie Sanders approved as you can see. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has a less liberal voting record in the Senate than does Obama.
I am not trusting enough to think Mr. Obama will cast aside his far left mentoring and govern from the center, especially if he gets majorities in the House and Senate.