In the political world, it is common knowledge that when you have more voters voting, the population tends to skew more and more to the left. Republicans do not like admitting this very often and heavily rely on fear, manipulation and sometimes a little smoke and mirror treatment to the ballot boxes. Despite all that, Ohio is a crucial battleground state, and they do not take the state lightly. So when the buckeyes decided to allow more people to vote and make it easier by the way of same-day registration and early voting, Republicans went beserk.
From Yahoo News:
Ohio has created a window in the election calendar that would allow residents instant gratification — register one minute, vote the next. It's also given the campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain a chance to bank thousands of first-time voters during that Sept. 30 to Oct. 6 window.
The move will benefit Obama, who enjoys a 2-to-1 lead over McCain among 18- to 34-year-olds, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last month. If Obama's campaign were able to tap into college campuses with one-stop voting, it would add thousands of votes to his tally in a state where, in 2004, John Kerry lost to President Bush by only about 118,000 votes, putting Bush over the top in the electoral count.[...]
In Ohio, Republicans are clearly not pleased with same-day registration and voting and have not ruled out a lawsuit against Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office.
"You have to wonder, when they look at what they consider a loophole with such excitement," said Jason Mauk, the Ohio Republican Party's executive director. "That would suggest manipulating the process, and I think opens the door to suspicion."
Suspicions? Manipulations? Do you really want to go there Mr. Mauk? Really, this is a tremendous boon to the process that we call democracy. Allowing more people to vote with less restrictions is a good thing, not a manipulation. If the Republicans had a message with broad appeal and a record to back that up, they'd be just as happy as the Democrats...but they don't, so they have to resort to whining about the freedom to vote and frivolous litigation.
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