Ohio Residents Storm State House: Protest Vote Suppression
Michigan Independent Media Center
Toledo, Ohio – Hundreds of angry Ohio residents marched through the
streets of Columbus — Ohio’s capital — [last week] and stormed the Ohio
State House, defying orders and arrest threats from Ohio State
Troopers. “O-H-I-O suppressed democracy has got to go,” they chanted.
After troopers pushed and scuffled with people, nearly a hundred people
took over the steps and entrance to the State’s giant white-columned
capitol building and refused repeated orders to disperse or face
arrest. People prepared for arrests, ready to face jail — writing
lawyers’ phone numbers on their arms, signing jail support lists and
discussing non-cooperation and active resistance (linking arms, but not
fighting back).
Protesters storm the Ohio State House on November 3.
…The Ohio State House takeover was the culmination of an eight-hour
long afternoon of protest at the state capitol by Ohio student and
youth groups (The Columbus and Toledo Leagues of Pissed Off Voters, and
Reach Out-Bowling Green) together with Columbus residents followed by a
300 strong 6pm march led by the Central Ohio Peace Network. The earlier
speak-out featured a litany of people who experienced or witnessed
voter suppression, intimidation and disenfranchisement before and
during the election. Thousands of Ohio voters had been disenfranchised
by partisan poll challengers, intimidation incidents, polling places
opening late, lines up to four and five hours long – often in the rain.
Here are a few of their stories:
Holly Roach of Toledo, Ohio, spoke of her 74-year-old father, Frank
Roach and her 89-year-old grandmother, Hazel Thompson, requesting
absentee ballots in early October. Hazel Thompson is homebound and
Frank Roach had been scheduled for heart surgery on November 2.
Absentee ballots never arrived. They were told by the County Voting
Commission that they could not vote with either regular or provisional
ballots, because they had already requested absentee ballots and
Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had issued a directive forbidding
[the use of] provisional ballots by people who applied for absentee
ballots and who had not received them (including some US service people
recently returned from Iraq). A lawsuit late in the afternoon of
November 2 by a voter in Lucas County led to a late afternoon order by
Judge David Katz of the Northern District of Ohio instructing the Ohio
Secretary of State to immediately advise all county boards of election
to advise polling precincts in their counties to issue provisional
ballots to voters in this situation.
(Click here to read the entire article.)
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