The Columbus Dispatch had a very telling story about the restoration of in-person voting hours on weekends and later in evenings (I know this is a Virginia-based blog, but I thought this issue was important enough that it was important to report on). This issue is obviously important because the majority of Ohio's minority voters work during the hours of 8 am to 5 PM.
If you're in a minority in Ohio (and America), you value your right to vote. Many individuals are still old enough to remember the days when they had to fight for their civil rights (the major one being that right to vote!!).
One of Deidre Reese’s most precious childhood memories is going to the polls with her family.
“It was a hard-fought-for right,” she says. “There was a time that we certainly could not do that.”
That’s one reason why Reese and many other African-American leaders across Ohio remain at the forefront of an uphill struggle to restore early in-person voting hours on weekends and later on weekday evenings. They plan to march to Monday’s special meeting of the Franklin County Board of Elections and ask for the additional hours.
That, however, is not the philosophy of the GOP in Ohio.
“I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine,” said Doug Preisse, chairman of the county Republican Party and elections board member who voted against weekend hours, in an email to The Dispatch. “Let’s be fair and reasonable.”
He called claims of unfairness by Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern and others “bullshit. Quote me!”
What's even more interesting is that Speaker John Boehner isn't even trying to hide that he hopes blacks and Latinos won't show up this election.
SMDH.
This is why we need to elect President Barack Obama to a second term. Sadly in 2012, we still have several people in this country that simply do not have a voice (one of their few voices is their vote – and the Ohio GOP is trying to take that away). President Obama will stick up for those people when no one else will.
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