| |
Ohio Voting Count 'Nightmare' Looms
|
|
| |
With the presidential election expected to hinge on Ohio, the state's former secretary of state, GOP stalwart Kenneth Blackwell, is warning that a little-known change in the Buckeye State's absentee-ballot process could lead to a "nightmare scenario."
And that scenario could force the entire country to wait 10 days after the election to find out who will be the next president of the United States. It's a complicated situation, to say the least, but one that could have a far-reaching impact on the Nov. 6 election process.
For the first time in the key swing state's history, Blackwell says, virtually all Ohio voters this year were mailed an application for an absentee ballot. In previous elections, most Ohio voters had to request an application for an absentee ballot to receive one.
The concern is that thousands of Ohio voters may complete the absentee-ballot application and receive an absentee ballot, but not bother to complete and mail in the ballot.
Anyone who is sent an absentee ballot - including those who do not complete it and mail it in - and later shows up at the polls on Election Day to cast their ballot in person will be instructed to instead complete a provisional ballot.
And under Ohio election law, provisional ballots cannot be opened until 10 days after an election.
"I would just say that this is a potential nightmare-in-waiting," says Blackwell.
Blackwell believes that could result in an unprecedented number of provisional ballots being filed - some 250,000 or more. Such a large number of ballots being held, presumably under armed guard, for 10 days until they can be opened, would bring to mind the historic 2000 post-election battle in Florida. That recount was marked by ballot disputes - and inevitably, lawsuits.
"You're talking about craziness for 10 days," Blackwell tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview. "They won't even be opened to be counted for 10 days."
According to a report by Barry M. Horstman of the Cincinnati Enquirer, absentee-ballot applications were mailed to 6.9 million of Ohio's 7.8 million registered voters.
As of Oct. 26, Ohio election officials had mailed out 1.3 absentee ballots. Of those absentee ballots, 950,000 had been completed and mailed back in.
That leaves some 350,000 absentee ballots that had been requested and sent to voters, but had not yet been received. Read more here.
|
|
|
Top
|
| |
Romney blasts Obama's 'secretary of business' plan as just another layer of government
|
|
| |
The Romney campaign is ripping President Obama for calling for the creation of a secretary of business to handle the nation's economic ills -- running a TV ad saying that solution would only add more bureaucracy to a cluttered system.
"His solution to everything is to add another bureaucrat," the narrator says in the 30-second spot. "Why not have a president who actually understands business?"
The president floated the idea last week, saying he wanted to consolidate "a whole bunch" of government agencies.
"We should have one secretary of business, instead of nine different departments that are dealing with things like giving loans to (the Small Business Administration) or helping companies with exports," Obama told MSNBC.
Romney criticized the idea Thursday during a rally in southwest Virginia.
"I know the president is trying to figure out some way to suggest he has new ideas," said Romney, repeating as he often has on the trail that roughly 23 million Americans are out of work or underemployed. "He came up with the idea of creating a Department of Business. I don't think adding a new chair in his cabinet will add more jobs on Main Street." Read more here.
|
|
|
Top
|
| |
Republican National Committee alleges voting machine troubles in Nevada, other swing states
|
|
| |
 Secretary of State Ross Miller called claims of voter machine irregularities in Nevada by the Republican National Committee “irresponsible and unfortunate” on Thursday.
Miller, a Democrat, was responding to a letter sent to his office and election officials in five other states on Thursday in which the RNC alleged voting machines cast ballots for President Barack Obama, a Democrat, when the vote was intended for his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The RNC did not provide documented proof of its allegation aside from media anecdotes.
In Washoe County, a man reported a problem with a voting machine in which he tried to vote for Obama but the machine kept registering a vote for Romney. The machine was recalibrated by election officials.
Miller responded in a letter sent to the RNC on Thursday that said unsubstantiated allegations of voting machine problems based on rumor, media reports and hearsay, “undermine the public’s confidence in the electoral process.”
The RNC letter expressed concerns that the voting machine problems were the result of “miscalibration and hyper-sensitivity of the machines.” Letters were sent to officials in Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. Read more here. |
|
|
Top
|
| |
Valerie Jarret - "After We Win This Election, It's Our Turn. Payback Time." (WSI)
|
|
| |
|
“After we win this election, it’s our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don’t forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won’t be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go.” |
 Openly declared as “Obama’s Brain”, and the figure whose second story West Wing office has been described by political insiders as the true Oval Office of the Obama White House, Valerie Jarrett is letting it be known that if Barack Obama secures election victory next week, there may be, quite literally, h--- to pay for those who opposed him.
NOTE: This update was forwarded to me by Wall Street Insider who indicated they received it this morning via a direct source associated with Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago.
Thought you would be very interested to hear of this. It appears this Jarrett creature is quite confident of a victory, and has every intention of making those who opposed her, and her boy, of paying dearly for their seeming crimes against them. As Election Day is nearly upon us, more and more are willing to speak outside the inner circle. Such is the case with this message received by me this morning from a source who has been working for us via Chicago for several months now. Their campaign appears increasingly confident, I assume, due to the now adoring media coverage of their boy’s little march with the commoners following this week’s storm. It has been a revolting display by some in our media has it not? Here then is the most recent report I received our Chicago source. I first passed it along to our mutual friend with no response, so now I pass it along to you in the hopes you deem it worthy to publish as its sharing will serve a related purpose with another I hope to secure a favor from in the very near future. And if you have any concerns regarding the source – don’t. They are being thoroughly protected despite their understandable trepidation. As you have been. Read more here. |
|
|
Top
|
NOTE: If someone forwarded this email to you and you would like to receive more like this, click HERE to Register. For more information about Tennessee Eagle Forum, go HERE.
|
Forward this email to a friend
| |
|
|
'No Red Tape'? New Jersey Turns Away Non-union Relief Crews
NOTE: I thought the President was going to cut all the red tape????
How desperate is hurricane-ravaged New Jersey? Not desperate enough to suspend a union monopoly that keeps the state in the bottom ten states for economic competitiveness (and #48 for business friendliness). Relief crews from Alabama who were specifically called to New Jersey found themselves diverted to Long Island, NY after they arrived because they use non-union labor. Alabama is a right-to-work state.
WAFF-TV of Hunstville, AL reports:
Crews from Huntsville, as well as Decatur Utilities and Joe Wheeler out of Trinity headed up there this week, but Derrick Moore, one of the Decatur workers, said they were told by crews in New Jersey that they can't do any work there since they're not union employees....
Understandably, Moore said they're frustrated being told "thanks, but no thanks."
With so much at stake--and lives still in danger--it would seem logical to tell special interests to step aside. Read more here.
|
|
| |
|
|
Hobby shop chain faces backlash for stance against ObamaCare
To send Hobby Lobby a note of encouragement.
A Christian-owned chain of hobby shops is facing a bitter backlash after suing the Obama administration over new requirements to provide insured employees with contraceptive and abortion coverage.
Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby filed the suit Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleging that the ObamaCare mandate violates the religious beliefs of the company's owners. The suit followed similar suits by Catholic colleges and a Denver-based company whose owners also objected to the mandate on religious grounds. While a judge has not yet ruled on Hobby Lobby's suit, a Facebook page calling for a boycott of the company, which operates 500 stores in 41 states, has appeared online, and several other forums have featured posts urging customers to steer clear of Hobby Lobby.
“I’m boycotting Hobby Lobby!” reads the heading of one posting on image posting site Flickr . “Even if you're pro-life this kind of action stinks to high heaven! If things like this can be allowed then what's next?!,” the user added.
Others have taken to social media to protest against Hobby Lobby, with a “Boycott Hobby Lobby” page on Facebook.
“I've been to two Hobby Lobby parking lots today and they were fairly empty. I used to have trouble finding a parking spot!” read one posting from the administrator of the Boycott page. “I think the boycott is catching on! I do not think they are getting the reaction they hoped for.”
Hobby Lobby owner David Green is a devout Baptist who owns one of the world's largest collections of Biblical artifacts. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Green in his suit, argued that compliance with the offending portion of the health care law that the nature of their suit is “would force religiously-motivated business owners like plaintiffs to violate their faith under the threats of millions of dollars in fines.” Read more here.
|
|
| |
|
|
Romney, GOP suddenly plunging onto Democratic turf
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Mitt Romney is suddenly plunging into traditionally Democratic-leaning Minnesota and Pennsylvania, and his GOP allies are trying to put Michigan into play. It's forcing President Barack Obama to defend his own turf - he's pouring money into television ads in the states and dispatching top backers - in the campaign's final week.
The question is: Why this Republican move?
GOP efforts in the trio of Rust Belt states could indicate that Romney is desperately searching for a last-minute path to the needed 270 Electoral College votes - without all-important Ohio. Or just the opposite, that he's so confident in the most competitive battlegrounds that he's pressing for insurance against Obama in what's expected to be a close race.
Or perhaps the Republican simply has money to burn. Use it now or never
Former President Bill Clinton was dispatched in response on Tuesday. "Barack Obama's policies work better," he declared on the University of Minnesota campus, one of his two stops in a state that offers 10 electoral votes and hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1972. Read more here.
|
|
|
