Ohio Governor calls for fiscal relief for state governments

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland offered his support for the upcoming economic recovery plan and made the case for fiscal relief in individual states.

"I think Ohio is similar to many other states...my first two year budget was the slowest growth budget that Ohio had in 42 years. We were very frugal with the people's resources," said Strickland during a teleconference hosted by Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now.

"In spite of that fact, over the last few months I have had to reduce over 1.9 billion dollars in our current budget."

The Governor stated that without immediate federal assistance, Ohio would be faced with a 7.3 billion dollar deficit in 2011.

"In order for us to have a balanced budget in 2010 and 2011 without federal assistance I would have to cut state government spending by 25%," a notion that Strickland described as impossible.

Governors Dave Patterson (D-N.Y.), Jim Doyle (D-Wis.), Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), Deval Patrick (D-Mass.), Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.), Jim Doyle (D-Wis.), and others have joined Strickland in calling for state assistance.

"We have got to have this help. It must come from the Federal Government because states do need to have a balanced budget, it will require additional borrowing...and the deficit will increase. There is no doubt about that," commented Strickland.

"But I believe the President Elect is correct in saying the greatest threat is in doing nothing and allowing this recession to become ever deeper," he concluded.

Obama-Biden campaign leads with early voters

The Obama-Biden campaign today announced a very confident and committed position in the presidential election. With several million volunteers around the country. the Obama-Biden campaign manager, David Plouffe, said “we like what we’re seeing in all the states with the early vote.”

Today the campaign released two 30 second TV ads in Arizona, North Dakota and Georgia. Plouffe said that even though the McCain-Palin campaign has criticized the Obama-Biden campaign about heavy advertising, “the McCain spending levels this week have been quite high. In the Tampa market, they’re spending over 5,000 points of television, which may be the most amount of television ever bought in a political race.”

Through advertising, voter contact, and resources, Plouffe said he feels the Obama-Biden campaign is doing everything they need to do in the swing-states. Plouffe also said the campaign is organizing polling information at popular locations that youths hang out at in the swing states.

Plouffe said that in the tossup state of Nevada, 43% of democrats voting early are new or sporadic. In North Carolina, 19% of democrats voting early never voted in an election before. In Florida, 1/4 of sporadic voting democrats have voted early. Plouffe said the campaign is putting special focus on voters who recently committed to Obama, because they’re known as “sticky” and still vulnerable to vote for McCain. Even though the campaign feels confident in their state of the race, Plouffe said this does not take away from “the fierce urgency of trying to win Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, Florida, and Ohio.”

Officials are optimistic that voting will go smoothly in Florida and Ohio

Fenton Communications held a teleconference on voter protection concering Florida and Ohio, reassuring voters that since 2001, resources have been implemented to help stop possible problems on election day.

Jonah Goldman, Director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, said that Florida and Ohio are showing signs of potential problems on election day but he is optimistic they will be resolved. "Their system is good but it still needs work. The issue is that even for early voting, there are voters who leave because of long lines, come back the next day, and still can't vote because of the long lines," Goldman said.

Jorge Mursuli, President and CEO of Democracia U.S.A, said that the good news is the collaboration between organizations which is helping increase peoples awareness of possible problems. "We now have an 800 number that people can call from anywhere to find out about possible voting issues in their area along with what they exactly need to bring to the voting booths," Mursuli said.

Goldman believes that the improvements his organization, others have made since 2001 will make a big difference with early voting and on election day.

Civil rights organizations fight “lose your home, lose your vote” efforts

“We’re seeing more voter suppression efforts and sophisticated tactics than ever before,” said Wade Henderson, President of the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights. Henderson continued “we’ve seen legal challenges to register voters in Ohio, fear tactics threatening that mortgage foreclosures or unpaid bills will thwart your right to vote, and may even result in arrest. There have been massive attempts to confuse voters with ‘robo calls’ and official looking websites and e-mails, especially in communities of color.”

J. Gerald Hebert, Executive Director of the Campaign Legal Center, explained several incidences of voter intimidation, such as “no match, no vote” cases in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Indiana, and Nevada. “No match, not vote” entails states refusing to register valid voters or purging them from voter rolls if they can’t match their voter information to other state voter records.

Hebert brought up an incident at Drexel University of Philadelphia where flyers were publicized claiming there will be undercover police officers at the polls on election day searching for voters who have outstanding warrants or parking tickets. Hebert claims the college community has especially had obstacles put in their way for being absentee voters or if “their parents claim them as independent on their tax returns.”

Jonah H. Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, said his organization will have “over 10,000 legal volunteers on and around election day, and over 750 call stations at 1-800-866-OUR-VOTE” in an effort to target voters affected by intimidation and suppression tactics, especially communities of color, young people, and seniors in key swing states.

Getting the vote right in the upcoming election

"It's probably going to be the election of a lifetime for me," said Don Rehill, Deputy Director of election tabulations at the Associated Press, at a panelist discussion, hosted by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) focusing on the key issues to examine the upcoming election on November 4th when it comes to reporting results, especially in competitive states. Rehill highlights the difficulties with lack of voting equipment being one of many problems encountered throughout past elections.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, highlighted previous elections dilemmas with lost voting machines in floods and failing memory cards. "There'll probably be at least one lawsuit to try to keep the polls open past 7:30 and we'll have to deal with that," Brunner said. According to Brunner, in Ohio they have given out a quick reference guide for the co-workers across the state to help conduct the correct voting procedures.