Obama campaign, DNC sue Ohio to restrict military voting

Obama campaign, DNC sue Ohio to restrict military voting

Joe Newby
Examiner.com
August 2, 2012

The Obama re-election campaign, along with the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in Ohio to strike down part of that state's law regarding military voting, Breitbart.com reported Thursday.

"Currently, Ohio allows the public to vote early in-person up until the Friday before the election," Mike Flynn wrote. Military members, he added, are "given three extra days to do so."

Flynn says he thinks the extra time is "entirely reasonable given the demands on servicemen and women's time and their obligations to their sworn duty."

But it seems that Democrats view the rule as "arbitrary" with "no discernible rational basis."

"It's a chilling notion that we should be opposed to those voting in the final three days because they may or may not vote on our side of the issues," said Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern.

DNC political director Patrick Gaspard called the rule "a cynical ploy."

"In Obama for America v. Husted, the complaint alleges that distinction between military and nonmilitary voters violates the equal protection clause of the federal constitution," Politico reported.

But Flynn disagrees, and says the lawsuit is intended to "disenfranchise some unknown number of military voters," citing the National Defense Committee:

[F]or each of the last three years, the Department of Defense’s Federal Voting Assistance Program has reported to the President and the Congress that the number one reason for military voter disenfranchisement is inadequate time to successfully vote.

"If anyone proposes legislation to combat voter fraud, Democrats will loudly scream that the proposal could 'disenfranchise some voter, somewhere. We must ensure, they argue, that voting is easy and accessible to every single voter," Flynn wrote.

"Every voter, that is, except the men and women of our military."

A May Gallup poll indicated that 58 percent of veterans prefer Mitt Romney, compared to 34 percent who support Barack Obama, and a Military Times poll found that 44.3 percent of service members do not approve of Obama's job performance.

Almost 39 percent of those polled considered themselves conservative, while 37 percent called themselves moderate. Only 6.72 percent identified themselves as liberal, and 1.39 percent said they were "very liberal."

I'm certain that this is just a ploy (lie) made up by the GOP.

Sounds like voter suppression to me...