Students, AFL-CIO Stand Up to Republican Challenge in Ohio

by James Parks, Nov 4, 2008

Here is the latest of our updates on voting issues throughout the day. Share what’s going on at your polling place on our Open Thread here.

The Columbus Dispatch today reported that students at Ohio State University (OSU), supported by the AFL-CIO, stood their ground against Republican attempts to disenfranchise student voters.

A Republican Party operative protested the proximity to the polling place of four members of OSU Votes, a student get-out-the-vote group, which was making sure students had the identification needed to vote and trying to steer them to the correct polling place. Ohio Republican Party attorney Keith Schneider demanded that the precinct officials move the group at least 100 feet from the front door, claiming they were influencing students’ votes.

OSU Votes students and Fran Schreiberg of San Francisco, the AFL-CIO My Vote, My Right coordinator on the OSU campus, strongly defended the students’ actions, and the presiding judge agreed to allow the students to stay where they were.

In other election updates:

• My Vote, My Right volunteers in Virginia’s Tidewater area report that despite long lines, bad weather and other difficulties, voters stayed in line for four to five hours to make sure they could cast ballots. At the Chesapeake, Va., community center, voters who had to wait four to six hours in line sang “We Shall Overcome.” The precinct reported that about 90 percent of the registered voters cast ballots.
• The Institute for Southern Studies notes that Virginia voters reported receiving anonymous robocalls that gave the wrong precinct for voting and that fliers distributed in the Hampton Roads area informed Democrats they should vote Nov. 5. The state decided against prosecuting those responsible, calling it an “office joke.”

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