Washington > Election 2004 > Ohio: G.O.P. in Ohio Can Challenge Voters at Polls” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/politics/campaign/02ohio.html?ei=5090&en=78d2dba2a66fb96f&ex=1257051600&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=all&position=”>The New York Times > Washington > Election 2004 > Ohio: G.O.P. in Ohio Can Challenge Voters at Polls

[I]t appeared likely that when Ohio polls open, the Republicans would be able to put 3,500 challengers inside polling places around the state. Democrats also planned to send more than 2,000 monitors to the polls, though they said those people would not challenge voters. …

The Republicans contend that challenging – a practice that has been allowed under state law for decades but rarely used – will weed out fraud often missed by election workers. Democrats assert that the challenges would disproportionately single out low-income and minority voters, which Republicans deny. …

In seeking the delicate balance between preventing fraud and upholding voting rights, the judges said, the scales should tip toward voting rights.

“Voter intimidation severely burdens the right to vote, and prevention of such intimidation is a compelling state interest,” wrote Judge Dlott, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton. Judge Adams was appointed by President Bush. [mjh: This rulling was overturned overnight by a Federal Appeals panel.]

In Philadelphia, Republicans have said they plan to challenge 10,000 voters in the heavily black West Philadelphia section because of what they say are concerns of registration fraud. Democratic Party lawyers are expected to ask judges to remove the challengers if they are overly aggressive.

In Florida, Republicans have said they will challenge 1,700 people with felons convictions if they show up to vote. Democrats have mustered thousands of poll watchers whose job will be to ensure that voters are not intimidated.

In New Mexico, officials in both parties said they were placing hundreds of lawyers in polling places as monitors. Democrats have said they will not challenge voters, but Republicans have held out the possibility of doing so.

Come Back to the Mainstream

William G. Milliken (Governor of Michigan): “The party has abandoned the middle to take on socially divisive issues. This president has pursued policies pandering to the extreme right wing across a wide variety of issues and has exacerbated the polarization and the strident, uncivil tone of much of what passes for political discourse in this country today.”

Elmer R. Andersen (Governor of Minnesota): “Republicans of my era used to have a humane and reasonable agenda. Today, as taxes for the wealthy are being cut, jobs are being outsourced if not lost and children are left medically uninsured, the Bush Administration is running up the biggest deficit in U.S. history– bound to be a terrible burden for future generations.”

David Cargo (Governor of New Mexico): “The party has been ‘kidnapped’ by conservatives. Its right-wing image is hurting the party electorally, particularly among suburbanites, women and minorities.”

Dan Evans (Governor of Washington): “There are a whole host of areas where the Bush Administration has gotten too harsh, too partisan, too unwilling to reach across the aisle to get good answers to tough problems.”

A. Linwood Holton (Governor of Virginia): “The problem lies with the extremist element that controls the Republican Party, which has polarized the country.”

Walter R. Peterson (Governor of New Hampshire): “We have let the Republican Party go too far to the right, so we risk losing much of the position we have with the American people. You go too far and the voters revolt.”

Daily Endorsement Tally: Bush Has a Big Day, But Kerry is Still Eking Out a Win

[T]he count of daily papers [is] 208-190 in favor of Kerry. …

Kerry continues to easily hold the edge in the circulation of papers supporting him by a roughly 4-3 margin.

More than 60 papers that backed Bush in 2000 have now switched to Kerry or endorsed neither candidate. Fewer than 10 switched the other way after backing Al Gore in 2000.

Kerry’s the One

Kerry’s the One
By Scott McConnell, The American Conservative Magazine

[This is] an election about the presidency of George W. Bush. To the surprise of virtually everyone, Bush has turned into an important president, and in many ways the most radical America has had since the 19th century. Because he is the leader of America’s conservative party, he has become the Left’s perfect foil — its dream candidate. …

Bush has behaved like a caricature of what a right-wing president is supposed to be, and his continuation in office will discredit any sort of conservatism for generations. …

Bush is more than ever the “neoconian candidate.” The only way Americans will have a presidency in which neoconservatives and the Christian Armageddon set are not holding the reins of power is if Kerry is elected. …

George W. Bush has come to embody a politics that is antithetical to almost any kind of thoughtful conservatism.

t r u t h o u t – RADIO FREE TO: Republicans for Kerry

Texas Republican Says “Country Must Come Before Party”, By Mitch Dworkin, Republicans for Kerry

The Republican Party as well as America needs a return to mainstream leadership.

Country must come before party. We need a president who can admit to making mistakes and bad decisions, a president who can unite this country and restore credibility back to the White House and to our allies who are now alienated from this Administration, and a president who is fiscally responsible and is in touch with the economic burdens of middle class Americans. …

A president who while in debate with agreed upon rules who will not directly answer the question that is put to him “President Bush, please give three instances when you think you made a bad decision, and what you did to correct it” and who in one incident interrupts the moderator of the presidential debate three times, changes the moderator’s question, and then says on his own without permission from the moderator “You tell Tony Blair we’re going alone…” does not have the temperament to lead the Republican Party or this great nation. That is especially true when our countrymen and women are shouldering 88.5% of the costs and casualties in Iraq due to this president’s inability to work with the United Nations.

The truth is non-partisan and the truth according to a federal report released last week is that economically we are worse-off than we were before President Bush took office with this president being the first president in 72 years to lose net jobs. The truth according to the CIA is that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which was the basis of President Bush starting a unilateral and preemptive war without a sufficient coalition, an exit strategy, and a plan to win the peace. The truth is that President Bush ran in 2000 as a candidate who would be a uniter as opposed to a divider and this country has never been more partisan in the last 22 years according to John McCain and even VP Dick Cheney admitted to this division in his debate with John Edwards.

There is a growing movement of Republicans called “Republicans for Kerry” who are moving away from President Bush and his extreme policies. It is a difficult and painful move for many Republicans who have never before considered voting for a Democrat, but they know that it will be even more painful if they have to endure another four years of the Bush Administration’s out of the mainstream policies.

The Republican Party and the country needs new leadership! Senator John Kerry is running a mainstream campaign of fiscal responsibility, he has demonstrated that he can work well with people and can unite people of differing opinions, and he can admit to making mistakes.

Country must come before party. Republicans of conscience should vote for John Kerry on November 2 so that this country will once again be stronger at home and respected in the world.