Hilary Clinton's larger-than-expected victory in Ohio may have been won with votes from Republicans, and from independents who usually vote Republican.
Much has been made of Rush Limbaugh’s other far-right commentators’ pleas to Republicans to cast their ballots for her in open primary states like Ohio and Texas. Part of the strategy is to slow down Barack Obama, who analysts argue will be harder for John McCain to beat this fall. Others, like Ann Coulter, have gone so far as to say they actually PREFER Clinton to McCain. Such voters would certainly also prefer the former first lady to Obama.
Whatever the case, there is concrete evidence in Ohio that Republican cross-over voters did, in fact, play a significant role in delivering the Buckeye primary votes to the Senator from New York.
Ohio has a classic open primary. Party affiliation can be whatever a voter states upon entering the polls. Both of this article’s writers, who usually vote Democratic or independent, chose to vote Republican in the 2006 primary, essentially because of a desire to oppose J. Kenneth Blackwell, the sitting Secretary of State, because of his role in his voter suppression during the 2004 election. In 2006, though our previous party affiliations were Democratic, each writer merely informed poll workers that we wished to cast a Republican ballot. Raised eyebrows notwithstanding, there were no problems getting them. The same opportunity allowed voters to cross-over last week.
There is clear statistical evidence that many Republican voters did cross-over. The Democratic Party “won at least 141,785 new voters in the four-county region” of Warren, Clermont, Hamilton, and Butler counties according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner told the New York Times that in Clermont and Summit Counties, paper ballots ran out mostly due to a large number of independent and Republican voters crossing over to vote in the Democratic primary.
In Warren and Clermont counties, in southwestern Ohio, the number of votes cast in the Democratic primary are telling. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that in Warren County, for example, there were 12,440 registered Democrats (9.49%) and 41,377 registered Republicans (31.57%) and 77,237 nonpartisan voters (58.94%). In Tuesday’s primary, 27,855 voters (48.53%) asked for Democratic ballots, representing 223.91% of the registered Democrats in that county.
Warren County is notorious for a “homeland security” alert called by county officials on Election Day 2004, causing the ballots to be diverted to and counted in a restricted unauthorized warehouse.
In Clermont County, there were 14,496 are registered Democrats and 37,714 registered Republicans, as reported by the Enquirer. In the primary, 26,279 people voted Democratic. One Clermont County presiding judge reported running out of Democratic ballots and turning away at least 30 people, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Election observers on 2004 claimed that 100 or so ballots in Clermont County has stickers over John Kerry’s name, that would have caused the vote scanner not to register a marked Kerry vote.
In 2004, Warren, Clermont and nearby Butler County gave Bush some 140,00 more votes than Kerry. Bush’s entire margin of victory in Ohio was less than 119,000 votes.
Dr. Richard Gunther, professor of political science at Ohio State University suggests that other factors are in play in Ohio. He sees a likely shift of independent voters, similar to the elections of 1930, 1932 and 1934. In those elections, spurred by the Great Depression, independent and Republican voters shifted their loyalties to the Democratic Party and Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, causing a fundamental realignment in politics that lasted for fifty or so years.
There were some technical issues with voting machines in Tuesday’s election. The Enquirer reported on power outages in Darke and Hamilton counties and reports of electronic touch-screen voting machines problems in Montgomery County. Voters at one precinct in Lucas County (Toledo) voted on paper ballots after the electronic voting machines failed, according to the Toledo Blade.
Secretary of State Brunner has made significant strides toward guaranteeing freer, fairer and more transparent elections. In the wake of massive irregularities under Former Secretary of State Blackwell in the 2004 election, Brunner has committed the state to paper ballots. In Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), she forced the resignation of Republican Board of Elections (BOE) Chair Bob Bennett, along with the rest of the board. Bennett forced the county to spend $20 million on electronic touch-screen voting machines, which proceeded to crash in the 2005 primary. Among other things, they registered a 14% vote count error, according to a BOE study.
This spring Brunner ditched the machines in Cuyahoga County in favor of paper ballots. Ironically, the county ran out of the Democratic ballots, indicating a higher than expected turnout of voters for the Democratic primary. In response, a federal judge ordered several Cleveland polling stations to stay open until 9pm so everyone could vote.
In Franklin County (Columbus) a survey by the 16-member election protection team from the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism showed that it took an average of 15 minutes to vote in inner city precincts such as ward #5 and #55. These two precincts had lines between three to seven hours long in 2004.
After JFK asked me to work for him in Oak Park illinois during his run for president, I was approached by a number of Democrats in runs for mayors of smaller cities in Illinois. In one city where the mayoral candidate faced a 7-1 Republican advantage among their Trustees/aldermen. We turned that around 6-2 Dems and got the fellow we wanted to run against by crossing over to vote in their primary and soundly beat him and his trustees. It worked in a city of 50,000 souls who were often on the edge of either party, but as you know, much tougher in a state as large as Ohio.
Is it possible the leading political parties could agree
Not on who will win in primaries, but who can vote for their respective candidates. Granted, states control the election process. But as Florida and Michigan make it clear, national parties manipulate and then play more politics when they are dissatisfied with the rules they made. It would go something like Republican, Democrat, and Other for registration roles.
The press should stay out of the matter. Perhaps one of the reasons Congress and even the White House have a hard time of presenting their platforms is that a word or phrase becomes more written about than any issues. I say this because the so-called debates have also become co-opted by press sponsorship. I consider it a sad day when the League of Women Voters were shut out of the political process.
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Margaret Bassett (25 articles, 1612 quicklinks, 29 diaries, 972 comments)
on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 4:22:37 PM
I just heard that CNN had conducted an investigation revealing that there were "no" crossover votes for Hillary among repubilcan voters. What's this nonsense? Does Fitrakis have incontroverible proof that this happened, or is he simply contriubuting one more piece of anti-Hillary garbage disguised as an objective news article? How on earth can Fitrakis know, that the crossover republican votes weren't for Obama?
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johncp (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 14 comments)
on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 5:12:32 PM
I agree that such as this article, and the numerous other charges and counter charges being hurled about by far too partisan supporters cheapens the debate and the very act of selecting our leadership. What is one to do, perhaps we are witnessing the death throes of democracy itself. We do get, it would seem, the governance we deserve......
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 5:54:05 PM
I can't speak for Ohio, but the Republican's sure came out in Texas and voted for Hillary.
In my rural county, we pretty well know the locals. And I personally saw several Republican's voting in the Democrat Primary. One almost got elected as Precinct Delegate for Hillary. He damn nigh found Jesus when he avoided that 'honor'.
Texas is somewhat like Ohio in that no proof of Party is required to vote in the Primary. Your Voter Registration Card is stamped for whichever Primary you voted in. To keep you from voting twice or attending the wrong Caucus.
That would be one reason why the Delegate count isn't matching the voting here. Not all Republican's went to the Party Caucus after the Polls closed.
Hell, we even had a Female Precinct Judge (who supports Hillary) abscond with the ballots, saying she needed to take them home and "correct" them. She was chased to a police sub-station, by Barak's supporter's, where the ballots were seized and turned over to the County Chairperson. No way to tell if all the ballots have been accounted for afterwards.
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txfarmer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 9 comments)
on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 7:18:49 PM
I assume that you are allowing your angst and partisanship to alter historical fact. I urge you to read a history of the Republican Party in order to educate yourself to the realities.
There is ample reason to rail against much of what the RNC and the party's leadership has done since Reagan at least but such over the top stuff as you posit makes for more rather than less confusion and divisiveness.
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 5:51:08 PM
Who cares? This is an issue for Ohio and Texas to work through, not us. Clinton won Texas and Ohio, let it go. She got what 12 more delegates than Obama from her 3 state win? And the big deal is? There are still a number of states that have not been heard from so let's see how they go.
Personally, the issue surrounding the Democratic primaries has far more to do with how the Clinton's deal with the fact Obama now has an over 130 delegate lead over Clinton and short of her attacking and ravaging him with negative ads in the remaining states it is hard to see how she will make up that difference and capature the party nomination. Could she possibly capture the lead and nomination without simultanously destroying any chance to win the election for herself and other democrats because of her tactics? I don' know, but I would like to find out just how far the Clinton's are willing to go and whether Democrats will simply stand idly by and watch and ignore it all if it becomes clear winning is everything. As Jay Leno would say, "we get the government we deserve".
Politics is a funny business. I am more than happy to see how Clinton plans to try and do this and I trust Obama is far more capable than most people on this board give him credit for being. My money is on Obama to win, and I fail to see how a win in these states has really changed anything. Maybe I am just naive, but I believe this year really is different.
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Peter Wedlund (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 160 comments)
on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 10:02:57 PM
Rush may have gotten some Republicans out, but 10% of the vote? No way. I'd say John Glenn and Gov. Ted Strickland had a lot more to do with it, plus the understandably panicked status of Ohio's blue-collar voters ready to grasp at any straw to bring back their jobs and the good old days.
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Gregg Gordon (26 articles, 47 quicklinks, 15 diaries, 199 comments)
on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 7:03:29 AM
11 comments
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