Courts Allow Early Voting Week in Ohio

In a defeat for Republican challenges, courts have cleared the way for a weeklong period in which new voters can register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day in Ohio.

The early voting begins Tuesday and runs through Oct. 6. The Ohio Supreme Court and a federal judge in Cleveland on Monday upheld the weeklong voting period. Later in the day, Judge George Smith of Federal District Court in Columbus declined to rule, deferring to the Ohio Supreme Court decision. But Judge Smith ruled that counties must allow party poll observers during early voting. The disputed voting window results from an overlap between Tuesday’s beginning of absentee voting 35 days before Election Day, and the Oct. 6 end of voter registration.

The decisions were a victory for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat whom Republicans had accused of interpreting state law to benefit her party.

Although both the campaign of the Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, and the Republican National Committee have urged supporters in Ohio to use the early voting, Republican-backed lawsuits were filed against it. In the day’s last courtroom battle, the Ohio Republican Party filed a statewide challenge in Columbus before Judge Smith, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

The ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court was a defeat for two voters who had sued and were backed by the state Republican Party. Republicans argue that Ohio law requires voters to be registered for at least 30 days before they cast an absentee ballot and does not allow same-day registration and voting. But Ms. Brunner interpreted the law correctly, Judge Gwin ruled.

The Obama campaign plans to get college students around the state to register and vote during the window. Other groups, including the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, have plans to drive voters who are homeless, low income or members of minority groups to the polls.

Michael H. Drucker
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Credit Crisis Battle

Today the House defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue package, ignoring urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial industry.

The economic experts claim this will cause a credit crisis and the sky is falling. But no one has reported that the Feds this morning took actions to handle the problem. So why is it such a rush to do something without the required detail debate on the right solutions. This was reported this morning.

The Federal Reserve and foreign central banks agreed to pump billions of dollars into the global financial system Monday to unlock tight lending that threatens to unhinge the U.S. economy.

The Fed said the action is intended to “expand significantly” the cash available to financial institutions in an effort to relieve the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression. In taking the action, the Fed cited “continued strains” in the demand for short-term funding.

Central banks will continue to work closely and are prepared to take “appropriate steps as needed” to ease the crisis and get banks lending again, the Fed said. The Fed announced its decision shortly after the start of trading Monday morning.

Under one new step, the Fed will boost the amount of 84-day cash loans available to U.S. banks. The Fed is increasing the amount to $75 billion, up from the current $25 billion starting on Oct. 6. Banks bid on a slice of the loans at an auction.

That move will triple the supply of 84-day loans to $225 billion, from $75 billion, the Fed said.

Meanwhile, the Fed will continue to make $75 billion worth of shorter, 28-day loans available to banks.

All told, the total amount of cash loans — 84-day and 28-day — available to banks will double to $300 billion from $150 billion, the Fed said.

Moreover, the Fed will make a total of $620 billion available to other central banks, expanding ongoing currency “swap” arrangements with them where dollars are traded for their currencies. That’s up from $290 billion previously in such arrangements.

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the central banks of Denmark, Norway, Australia and Sweden are involved in those swap arrangements.

The move comes as the U.S. financial meltdown’s tendrils have ensnared banks in Britain, the Benelux and Germany.

By pledging to provide “a very large” cash infusion, the Fed hopes the actions will “reassure financial market participants.”

What do you think about the credit crisis?

Michael H. Drucker
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Dr. Lenora Fulani Gives John McCain the Straight Talk

Dr. Lenora Fulani sent John McCain a letter this week giving him the straight talk about what his endorsement by the Independence Party of the New York means. Dr. Fulani is a founder of the party.

Use the above link to read the letter(pdf).

Michael H. Drucker
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An Open Debate in NYC

Trevor Lyman is the man who organized the Ron Paul money bombs. One Lyman money bomb raised $4 million in one day. Another raised $6 million in one day.

Now, Lyman is at it again. Lyman wants to hold a third party debate in New York City. Lyman was inspired by Ron Paul's press conference a couple of weeks ago. At that press conference, Paul called on his followers to ditch the two major parties and throw their support to one of the independent or third party candidates.

If Lyman gets 10,000 pledges by October 8, he and the other sponsors will organize a debate in New York City. All major candidates -- Nader, Barr, McKinney, Baldwin, Obama and McCain will be invited. Already, with no publicity, Lyman has close to 1,000 pledgers.

Use the above link for want more information and make a pledge.

Michael H. Drucker
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Jackie Salit's Post Convention Analysis

Jackie Salit added an independent's point of view to the political analysis. Here she appears on the Morning News edition of CBC, September 23, 2008.

Use the above link to read Jackie's NEO-INDEPENDENT Magazine.

Michael H. Drucker
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Open The Debates

While Obama and McCain squabble about whether to participate in the two party-controlled CPD debate this Friday, the campaign to Let Ralph Debate continues. Since the national media will cover every minor detail of the Obama/McCain squabble, grassroots support is needed to help get out a message of opening up the debates.

If you are interested in Ralph Nader's efforts to open the debates, use the above link.

Michael H. Drucker
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FL Voting Glitches

With 41 days to go before the presidential election, election officials and political operatives in Palm Beach County — famous for overvotes, undervotes, butterfly ballots and hanging chads — are worried about a repeat performance of the chaos that clouded the outcome of the 2000 presidential race.

Those concerns have been fueled by an otherwise obscure local judge’s race. County Circuit Judge Richard Wennet faced a strong challenge from William Abramson, a local criminal lawyer, last month. When the ballots were counted, Abramson led by 17 votes out of more than 102,000. An automatic recount was conducted, which put Wennet ahead by 60 votes. But this time, about 3,500 ballots were missing. The state elections board refused to accept the result. Off to court they went. A state judge ordered another tally. No result was announced because, while the missing 3,500 votes were found in a warehouse, a fresh batch of 159 that were counted the first time could not be read. Another machine recount was conducted Tuesday. It said Abramson won, but the machines kicked out 160 ballots they could not read. After those were counted by hand, the county canvassing board declared Abramson the winner. However, Wennet said he might continue the fight. This back-and-forth has some fearing far worse in November.

The punch cards are gone. Security cameras monitor all activity in every county election office. Random spot-checks review each ballot in 2 percent of all precincts. But the “improved” system may not be much better than the old one. “There’s a lot of improvement needed here and throughout the state of Florida,” said Judge Barry Cohen, chairman of the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board.

For example, to ensure that each voter is properly qualified to vote, the state imposed stringent ID requirements. The rules say a voter’s driver’s license or approved alternative identification must match up exactly with the voter database. Two problems: Some driver’s licenses have typos. And the voter rolls have never been proofread for errors. “Requiring to be matched up perfectly to databases which have never been tested for accuracy is simply a prescription to have people disenfranchised,” said Ion Sancho, elections supervisor in Leon County, the location of the state capital, Tallahassee.

Or take the new ballots, which are read by optical scanners. The rules are simple but precise: Voters must blacken in the space between the head of an arrow and a rectangular base beside their preferred candidate’s name, creating a whole arrow by connecting them. But some voters didn’t understand the directions. So far, election officials say, many ballots have been rendered unreadable by voters who wrote in X’s, checks, boxes, stars or dots. One voter kissed the ballot and made her mark with lipstick.

Having learned its lesson in 2000, the Democratic Party is taking no chances. Obama’s campaign has an unprecedentedly large staff in Florida — 350 paid workers in 50 offices running the length and breadth of the state, more than four times the size of McCain’s operation. Obama said that given the difficulties in Palm Beach County, he planned to station a team of election lawyers in the state. “I’m not going to anticipate a problem,” Obama said Saturday at a rally in Jacksonville. “I’m just going to prepare for a problem by making sure that we’ve got lawyers in precincts all across the state." “We are going to make sure the election is run the way it’s supposed to be run,” he said. “The state Democratic Party has registered 300,000 new voters this year alone, but will their votes be counted?”

Thanks to: Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Kerry Sanders is a correspondent for NBC News. NBC News political director Chuck Todd and NBC affiliates WJHG of Panama City, Fla., and WPTV of West Palm Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.

How is your state doing with voting machine problems?

Michael H. Drucker
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NY Independence Party Presidential Nomination

The New York Independence Party formally nominated the McCain-Palin ticket in Albany on September 21. Approximately 40 state committee members attended. Proxy voting dominates such meetings. McCain received 83% of the weighted vote, and the other 17% abstained. The entire meeting, which was a combination reorganization meeting and a state convention, last less than an hour. Frank MacKay was re-elected state chair.

As a member, I was part of the 17% that represented about 100,000 voters.

After review of the local articles, I agree with this assessment.

The state Independence Party's endorsement of Republican John McCain has very little to do with the race for the White House. It's really a move to help Senate Republicans retain their majority. MacKay is gambling big time on McCain, who is widely expected to lose in Democrat-dominated New York despite a recent poll that showed him trailing Obama here by just 5 percentage points among likely voters.

MacKay didn't deny that providing McCain with a third ballot line in New York was really designed to help the endangered Senate Republicans, who are just two seats away from losing the majority. The Independence Party has long been allied with the Senate GOP and bent over backward this year to endorse Republican incumbents and candidates in key races, even changing its own rules to do so. The hope is that disaffected Republicans and independents will pull the lever for McCain on Row C in November will continue down the line and support GOP Senate candidates there, too. In close races, the votes on third-party lines could prove crucial in the battle for control of the Senate.

This is the IPNYC response:


Statement by New York City County Chairs on the
State Party's endorsement of John McCain

September 21, 2008


“The Independence Party's cross-endorsement of John McCain is one step in the sham that the state party has become. The deal with McCain was made by one man, the State Chairman, Frank MacKay. Members of the State Committee, the body empowered to select a presidential nominee, were not informed or consulted about MacKay's plan.

This dictatorial way of doing party business has become MacKay's standard operating procedure. MacKay spent the last week trying to distrupt meetings of IP members who were democratically forming county committees in New York City, made up of 4,000 IP members. At this point, the New York City Independence Party is the only wing of the party with a genuine track record of independence and democratic participation.

MacKay has corrupted and virtually destroyed the State Party taking it from a vibrant, pro-democracy force for political reform to a corrupt manipulation of people's genuine desire for change. If John McCain thinks that the State Independence Party is a symbol of independent thinking and activism, he is sadly mistaken.”

- Cathy L. Stewart: Chair, New York County IP
- Robert Conroy: Chair, Kings County IP
- Molly Honigsfeld: Chair, Queens County IP
- Keith McHenry: Chair, Bronx County IP
- Sarah D. Lyons: Chair, Richmond County IP


Michael H. Drucker
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Who's Undecided?

In this election year I always thought the pollsters were missing the third-party/independent vote. Last night a CNN pollster proved my point.

In FL the poll showed Obama & McCain at 46% and 8% Undecided. But when the voters were given a bigger choice the vote was:

Obama - 48%
McCain - 45%
Nader - 4%
Barr - 1%
McKinney - 1%
Undecided - 1%

First it seems McCain is the loser this year to the Third-Party/Independent Candidates in FL. Second the voters are not as Undecided as some think. But I still can not explain why Obama gained.

Some other states - Registered Voters:

COLORADO
Obama - 42%
McCain - 43%
Barr - 3%
McKinney - 2%
Nader - 7%
Undecided - 3%

NEVADA
Obama - 41%
McCain - 41%
Barr - 5%
McKinney - 3%
Nader - 6%
Undecided - 4%

NEW MEXICO
Obama - 50%
McCain - 36%
Nader - 8%
Undecided - 6%

PENNSYLVANIA
Obama - 47%
McCain - 38%
Barr - 1%
Nader - 7%
Undecided - 7%

Do you think I am on to something?

Michael H. Drucker
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SC Fusion and Obama

I need help with this one!

South Carolina permits fusion. This year, two ballot-qualified minor parties definitely wanted to list Barack Obama as their presidential nominee, and a third ballot-qualified party inclined toward Obama as well. However, the Obama campaign has declined all those nominations. Therefore, the Working Families Party, the United Citizens Party, and the Independence Party, will simply have no presidential nominee.

Last month, South Carolina agreed that if a presidential candidate did have a nomination from multiple parties, and if the parties jointly nominated the same slate of presidential elector candidates, then all votes would count.

The deadline for submitting names for the ballot was September 10. The three parties don’t have any recourse now since Obama declined.

Let me know if you can explain why Obama would give up this votes.

Michael H. Drucker
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Go Vote Absentee

f you can't be at home on election day, you still have the right to vote by absentee ballot, wherever you are and wherever you're from. Without an easy-to-use information portal, the process can be confusing-- you need the appropriate forms, instructions, deadlines, and contact info for your hometown.

Now, all you need to do is type in your zip code and You will be given all the information you need. You'll be sending in your ballot in no time.

Use the above link to start the Absentee Ballot process.

Michael H. Drucker
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PA Ballot Access Reform Bill Introduced

On September 17, Pennsylvania Senator Mike Folmer received a bill number for his ballot access reform bill. It is SB 1578. It should be on-line at the Pennsylvania legislature’s web page by the end of the week. It defines a qualified minor party to be a group with registration equal to one-twentieth of 1%. If it were law now, the Constitution, Green and Libertarian Parties would be on the ballot automatically. They would nominate by convention. The law is based on Delaware’s law. The bill sharply reduces the number of signatures for independent candidates.

There isn’t much time left this year for the legislature to act, but if it doesn’t pass this year, Senator Folmer will reintroduce it next year.

Senator Folmer is looking for Co-sponsors for this bill. If you live in PA please contact your State Senator and ask him/her to co-sponsor, or at least support, SB-1578 “The Voters’ Choice Act”. The bill is the Voters Choice Act drafted by the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition last year (Greens, Libertarians, Constutution, Prohibition, Naderites and others). Folmer is one of the new Senators who knocked off long time incumbents following the pay raise scandal.

Right now, R’s and D’s need 2,000 signatures for statewide offices. Any other party or an independent needs to collect signatures equal to 2% of the highest total number of votes cast for an office in the previous state-wide election. For 2008, a statewide candidate would need to collect nearly 25,000 valid signatures to be eligible. In 2006, parties needed to collect 67,000 because of the huge turn-out of the 2004 presidential election.

John Murphy, a candidate for Congress in PA’s 16th, played a part in getting this bill to the floor. He is part of PA’s Ballot Access Coalition.

Michael H. Drucker
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Democrats Sue Michigan G.O.P. on Voter Issue

Responding to allegations that Republican Party officials in Macomb County, Michigan plan to use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls in November, the Obama Campaign and the Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court to prevent what they contended was an illegal practice.

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
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