Two federal court cases have been decided in favor of Democracy, and not the Repugnican Party.

The first, and my personal favorite of Repugnican disenfranchisement stories this year, is that the Repugnican effort to get 35,000 registered democrats off the voter roles because the paper their registration was filed on was "too light", among other excuses, has been overturned. 35,000 people who made the effort to register to vote can now do so without expecting further interference from the Repugnican Party.

In other news, the federal court also ruled Ohio's law allowing party officials inside polling places to unconstitutional. Of course the only party that planned to put people in the polling places to challenge voters was the Repugnican Party. They are expected to appeal the decisions since Democracy and the right to vote may not server their agenda this election.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/01/ohio.challengers/index.html

yeah, but look what else is going on:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/politics/campaign/01voting.html

COMPLAINTS
Charges of Fraud and Voter Suppression Already Flying
By KATE ZERNIKE and WILLIAM YARDLEY

Published: November 1, 2004


n Lake County, Ohio, officials say at least a handful of voters have reported receiving a notice on phony board of elections letterhead saying that anyone who had registered through a variety of Democratic-leaning groups would not be allowed to vote this year.

In Pennsylvania, an official of the state Republican Party said it sent out 130,000 letters congratulating newly registered voters but that 10,000 were returned, indicating that the people had died or that the address was nonexistent. Mark Pfeifle, the Republican spokesman, said the numbers showed that in their zeal to register new voters, Democratic-aligned groups had committed fraud.

And in Michigan, Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said she had to put out a statement in mid-October about where to send absentee ballots after voters in the Ann Arbor area received calls telling them to mail the ballots to the wrong address.

With lawyers and poll watchers descending on battleground states and the presidential race tight enough that every vote could count, elections officials say that charges of voter intimidation and voter fraud, on the street or in courtrooms, are flying more furiously than any one can remember in recent elections.

Much of the tone has been set by a propaganda war of sorts between the parties, with the Democrats charging that efforts are being made to suppress the vote and Republicans warning against voter fraud or double voting.

In part, the charges are designed by each party to get out their core supporters to the polls. But court battles already under way over such matters as who gets to cast provisional ballots show this is also a serious struggle that could continue in the courts after Election Day.

Democrats have tried to walk a fine line. For weeks they made charges that Republicans were working to keep down turnout and deter newly registered voters. But as Election Day has approached, they have moderated their tone, assuring voters that all will be fine at the polls, mindful of surveys showing that reports of confusion can deter voters.

In Philadelphia, where turnout among blacks is considered crucial to the Democrats winning Pennsylvania, state Democrats held a press conference last week where the Rev. Jesse Jackson assured voters there would be no disruptions at the polls. Michael Whouley, the get-out-the-vote expert at the Democratic National Committee, held a teleconference with reporters last week to insist that the reports of challenges and confusion at polling places were greatly exaggerated. "American democracy is working," he said.

Jenny Backus, another adviser to the D.N.C., said that early voting had gone smoothly, and that Election Day would too. "For all the Republican talk of beware, beware, millions of Americans are having a perfectly pleasant voting experience," she said.

Still, Democrats were putting out briefing papers outlining incidents they said were designed to suppress voting or intimidate voters.

Republicans say they are trying to prevent people from voting twice in states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where in Philadelphia the number of registered voters is almost as high as the number of voting-age residents. Ed Gillespie, the Republican national chairman, has said that in some critical places registration is even higher than the number of eligible voters, though election officials say such discrepancies can result from people moving.

Republicans also say they want to keep those ineligible, such as illegal immigrants, from voting. "I'm astonished at the lack of concern with the fraud that exists out there," said Mindy Tucker Fletcher, an adviser to the Florida Republican Party.

Republican supporters in Florida sought to capitalize on Democratic charges of voter intimidation with a radio advertisement over the weekend. "Republicans won't let us vote? They say it to distract us," says the advertisement, which the Bush campaign said was not one of its own. The ad concluded, "There is no one stopping you from voting, and if you pay attention to what these Democrats are doing instead of what they are saying, you'll vote Republican."

Caught in the middle are elections officials, trying to sort out which complaints are real.

"I have had an election year I'd never thought I'd experience in my 21 years," said Jan Clair, the director of the Lake County Elections Board in Ohio. "I've had to do so much damage control."

interestin title
too much for me to read
i might have add
ewwww a butterfly
"3 hours later"
o ya
brown shirts
now if ya care to give me the jist of it id really appreaicate it