Elections

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who serves as the state's chief election official, has come under fire for some of his controversial decisions with regards to the 2012 election. As accusations of voter suppression fly around, Husted is now defending some of his decisions.

One of the things that Husted did this election was send all 7 million registered voters in Ohio an application for an absentee ballot instead of waiting for those who wanted one to ask for one. Some of the people that received them said that they thought they were an attempt to discourage early voting. Matthew McClellan, spokesman for the Secretary of State, denied that was a motivation, stating that his office "worked hard to make voting uniform" and give all residents the same opportunity and "same level of access."

A problem, however, could arise tomorrow if some of those who requested the absentee ballots try to vote on Tuesday they will be given a provisional ballot. A provisonal ballot would need to be certified for authenticity. As of tonight, 1.195 million of the 1.3 million absentee ballots had been returned. Husted said:

"We believe that the vast majority of those have been sent in. We have a small number that will not arrive by election night, but we believe that it won't be a huge number and only if the race is razor thin close will that come into play."

Husted also predicts that about 200,000 provisional ballots will be cast on Election Day. These votes cannot be counted until 10 days after the election.

The final Rasmussen Reports survey of likely Ohio voters shows that in Ohio, the 2012 presidential race is a tie. The poll shows both Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama locked in a dead heat with 49 percent support each.

One percent of those surveyed favor another candidate in the race, and another one percent is undecided.

Last week, the race in Ohio was tied after Romney had posted a slight 50% to 48% advantage a few days earlier. In every Rasmussen survey in Ohio since May, the candidates have been within two percentage points of each other.

If Romney wins Virginia and Florida, he will also need to win either Ohio or Wisconsin in order to be on track to get enough Electoral College votes to win the White House.

The survey also showed that 40 percent of likely voters in Ohio have already voted, and among these voters, Obama leads 60% to 37%. Ninety-three percent say that they have made up their minds about who they'll vote for, and in this group its 50% Obama and 49% Romney.

Overnight, four men in Perrysburg, Ohio, were caught in a Sheet Metal Workers International Association truck that was filled with Romney/Ryan signs. Early Friday morning, the men were issued summons for receiving stolen property.

Local police discovered the men with the stolen signs after residents reported seeing men snatching Romney signs in the middle of the night. According to the police report, the vehicle was registered to SMWIA Local 33 of Parma, and the four men involved in the incident were Corey Beaubien, Christopher Monaghan, Sean Bresler, and John Russell.

Along with the stolen signs, various tools such as drills were also found inside the SMWIA truck. It's believed that these were used to take down some of the largest signs, some of which measured as large as 4'x8'.

Citing "security concerns", Mitt Romney's supporters were not allowed to leave a Pennsylvania campaign rally held on Sunday, despite the fact that the crowd had been waiting for hours in the bitter cold for the candidate to arrive.

Reporters who were at the event tweeted about the chaos, as supporters were denied the ability to leave the event. Some parents complained that their children were on the verge of hypothermia and frostbite, but staff still wouldn't relent. Eventually though, the started letting people leave a few at a time.

To be fair, it was said to be a combination of the Romney campaign and the Secret Service holding supporters captive at the event, but it still doesn't come off well for Romney, whose campaign knew that he was delayed and could have done things to help keep the crowd comfortable while they waited but opted not to.

Concerned with the state of voting rights in Ohio, the state that many political experts say could determine the outcome of the 2012 presidential election, frustrated and outraged Ohio residents are now writing letters of concern to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that he investigate claims of election fraud and voter suppression perpetrated by Ohio's own Secretary of State, Jon Husted.

Husted is charged with maintaining the integrity of the elections process in Ohio, but, rather, it appears to many that he is simply trying to obstruct voters' rights. From trying to limit early voting hours, enacting tougher voter ID laws, the rejection of absentee ballot applications, to outright defying court orders, Husted has done more to stop Ohioans from exercising their right to vote than to help them.

What does it say about the character of a candidate when he can't even garner the support of his own relatives? This is a question that many Ohioans should be left to ponder, as it has been revealed that Mandel's own family does not support his anti-gay views. In an advertisement taken out in the Cleveland Jewish News, Mandel's wife's cousins published an open letter in which they publicly lambasted him for his stance on same-sex marriages, gays and lesbians serving in the military, and general anti-inclusive beliefs.

The letter read:

Open Letter to Josh Mandel,
Republican 
Candidate for U.S. Senator from Ohio


Dear Josh,

Four years ago you came into our family. We still remember the excitement surrounding your wedding, and how happy our family members were as they described it afterwards. So we were deeply saddened when you announced during your October 18th debate with Senator Sherrod Brown that you believe only some people should share this right to marry the person they love, while others should not.



Your cousins, Ellen Ratner and Cholene Espinoza, are among the many wonderful couples whose rights you do not recognize. They were married almost eight years ago in Massachusetts, at a time when it was the only state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage. Their wedding, like yours, was a beautiful and happy occasion for all of us in our family. It hurts us that you would embrace discrimination against them and countless other loving couples in Ohio and around the country.



We are equally distressed by your belief that gay men and women should not be allowed to serve openly in the military. Like you, Cholene spent many years in the armed forces. A graduate of the Air Force Academy and an accomplished pilot, she became the second woman in history to fly the U-2 reconnaissance plane. And yet, you have argued that she, like many gay and lesbian soldiers, should be forced to live a life of secrecy and lies.



Josh, as you know, our roots are deep in the Cleveland area and we have friends and family we love throughout Ohio. This family is sprawling and diverse, but it has always believed strongly in the values of equality and inclusiveness. Your discriminatory stance violates these core values of our family. Nevertheless we hope that over time, as you advance in years and wisdom, you will come to embrace the values of inclusiveness and equality as well.



Your cousins,



Michael Ratner, Bruce Ratner, Karen Ranucci, Pamela Lipkin, Rebecca 
Ratner, Elizabeth Ratner, Patrick Markee, Jacob Ratner, Ana Ratner

Rupert Murdoch, the man behind Fox News, on Saturday tweeted a warning shot at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie - either get on board and publicly support Mitt Romney, or President Obama's re-election will be blamed on him.

After watching Christie, a Republican, and President Obama put aside their political ideologies and work together in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Muroch tweeted that Christie:

"must re-declare for Romney, or take blame for next four dire years."

Christie gave the keynote address at the Republican National Convention this summer, and was once among Romney's most outspoken surrogates. This week, however, he has come under fire by the GOP for praising Obama and the federal government's quick response to the disaster. There have also been rumors that Christie felt snubbed when Romney chose Ryan as his running mate and was bitter about it.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted now stands accused of ordering for "experimental software patches" to be installed on the vote-counting machines in a number of Ohio counties. According to the Columbus Free press, voting rights activists are concerned that the software patches, which are usually utilized to update or change existing software, could possibly affect over 4 million registered voters, including those in the state's most populated counties near Cleveland and Columbus.

Under Ohio law, experimental use of voting equipment is permitted as long as it is restricted to a limited number of precincts. Under the experimental label, equipment can legally be used without certification.

According to the Columbus Free Press, the contract between Husted's office and the vendor, Election Systems and Solutions, states that the software has not been and does not need to be reviewed by any testing authority at the state or federal level.

A memo was sent out to personnel in the Secretary of State's office on Friday by election counsel Brandi Laser Seske detailing the software. In the memo, Seske explains that the software didn't require a review because it is not "involved in the tabulation or casting of ballots... or a modification to a certified system."

Photo: Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.

It appears that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, is on a mission to suppress Ohio voters. During the weeks leading up to Election Day, Husted has tried everything he can come up with, even defying court orders, in order to make sure that fewer people can vote early, and now get their vote counted. A last minute directive issued by Husted could now invalidate many legal provisional ballots.

Widely viewed as the most critical state for both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns, Ohio could swing the entire election if the 11th hour mandate stands.

Issued on Friday, the directive lays out the requirements for submitting a provisional ballot. The directive includes a form that puts the burden on the voter to correctly record the form of ID provided to election officials, and Husted instructed election officials not to count ballots if the form is not filled out correctly by a voter.

Voting rights advocates filed a lawsuit late Friday, stating that this is "contrary to a court decision on provisional ballots a week ago and contrary to statements made by attorneys for Husted at an Oct. 24 court hearing."

Husted directive also appears to be in violation of Ohio law. The lawsuit states:

Ohio Rev. Code § 3505.181(B)(6) provides that, once a voter casting a provisional ballot proffers identification, “the appropriate local election official shall record the type of identification provided, the social security number information, the fact that the affirmation was executed, or the fact that the individual declined to execute such an affirmation and include that information with the transmission of the ballot . . . .”

Mitt Romney's first choice for a running mate was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, before he had a sudden change in heart and opted instead to go with Paul Ryan. Politico reports that Christie was miffed by Romney's last minute decision, particularly because he was lead to believe in the weeks leading up to Ryan's introduction that he would be joining Romney on the Republican Party ticket.

Now GOP leaders suspect that Christie's brief embrace of President Barack Obama during his tour of Hurricane Sandy ravaged New Jersey was a deliberate snub to Romney.

Christie was vetted so in-depth by the Romney campaign in July that even some of his top advisers believed that the New Jersey governor was to be introduced as the GOP's vice presidential candidate. However, advisers revealed to Politico that Romney changed his mind over the course of two weeks this summer, and instead offered the job to Paul Ryan, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin.

Christie had been an attractive choice to Romney because his unfiltered style and propensity towards swearing gives him a knack for appealing to middle class voters, which is something that Romney struggles to do.

However, it was not Christie's colorful language and demeanor that scared off the Mormon presidential hopeful. Rather, it was his disregard for Romney as the guy on the top of the GOP ticket. Christie reportedly arrived at campaign events that he was attending on behalf of Romney late, and then when he spoke he would spend the majority of his speaking time on himself, not the GOP presidential candidate.

This lead Romney advisers to believe that Christie would not know how to be a "number two". Without explanation, Romney's campaign suddenly stopped vetting Christie just before Romney's trip to Europe over the summer.