Thousands of Republicans were on Tuesday placed inside polling stations in Ohio to challenge the eligibility of voters after a federal appeal court overturned an earlier legal decision that their presence would intimidate minority voters and could create chaos and delays.
The legal victory for the Republicans came in the early hours of yesterday morning when federal judges ruled that the lower district courts had exaggerated the potential for intimidation.
PHOTO: AFP
"The district courts have found a possible chamber of horrors in voting places throughout the state of Ohio based on no evidence whatsoever, save unsubstantiated predictions and speculation," argued judge James Ryan in his written opinion.
In the unusually long line that wound its way from Kings School, in Akron, at 7am on Tuesday, Democrat Jodi Delamatre doubted there would be challengers inside. "This isn't a black neighborhood so I don't think they'll bother," she said.
But half an hour later, as she picked up her punch card, the Republican challenger was there, a bespectacled middle-aged woman smiling benignly.
Inside the booth Delamatre stuck the small pen-like pin hard through the punch card next to Democrat John Kerry and held it down for a long time. "I've got to make sure it counts," she said. "I don't want to leave anything to chance."
US President George W. Bush won Ohio by 4 percent in 2000 and the Republicans have never won an election without taking the state. But over the last four years there have been heavy job losses in manufacturing industry, making it one of the most sought-after swing states and producing one of the most intense efforts to get the vote out.
On Sunday Susan Aylward received five phone calls -- three from Democrats and two from Republicans asking for her vote. One was a taped "robocall" from Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Monday she was at the Democratic party's phone bank punching numbers and reading her lines.
"This election is the most important election in our lifetime," she said. "We know the election will be very close. John Kerry needs your vote as your vote is your voice."
If the people she called were receptive, she made sure they knew where their nearest polling station was and asked if they needed a lift. Some expressed exasperation at being called too often. A handful were Republicans who had slipped through the screening process.
One woman told another volunteer that Jesus would not want her to vote for Kerry.
At the entrance to the Democratic party headquarters of Summit County, in which Akron sits, a poster said "Got time? Wave signs." They call it "visibility" work and on street corners throughout the city the faithful were out yesterday, even as dark clouds posed a constant threat.
Inside, the scene was one of frenetic activity. Kerry staffers paced the floor speaking through headsets while volunteers marched through with bags of bagels and crateloads of bottled water.
Volunteers plotted how to ensure a steady flow of information to the phone bank captains and canvass captains as election day progressed.
This is the ground war: Election through hand-to-hand combat. And the shock troops went into the field to perform the "knock and drag" -- canvassing door-to-door and then dragging people to the polls. At a pep talk for canvassers yesterday morning a coordinator tried to keep them focused. "People may want to talk to you about what's going on," he said. "But that's not what we're here for. It's not about arguing or convincing or anything. It's about who's voted and who hasn't."
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the