Obama officials in Ohio who dodged felony charges by confessing now
#21 | Posted by Dinsey
Is this the HUGE scandal you're talking about?
Ohio Elections Official Questions Obama Tactics
By Matthew Mosk
Ohio elections officials received complaints this morning from official poll workers about efforts by supporters of Democrat Barack Obama to serve as "legal poll monitors" who would be allowed to camp inside the voting stations.
Obama supporters have presented elections officials with a letter on campaign stationery signed by the senator's Ohio state director, Paul Tewes, which says, "The bearer of this letter is hereby authorized to serve as a legal poll monitor on behalf of the Obama campaign."
David M. Farrell, the state's director of elections, said in an interview that while Ohio does allow campaign supporters to serve as official observers in the polling stations, the Obama letters do not follow the established procedures for doing that. In fact, to be allowed access to the polling station as an official observer, a campaign's supporter would have to register with an election judge and be given an official certificate.
"In order to gain access to a polling location for a prolonged period of time, the law recognizes there is a process by which a campaign can appoint people to be observers," Farrell said. "We just wanted to make sure our officials knew, if someone has an observer certificate, go ahead, admit them. On the other hand, if someone hands a letter saying I am a monitor, that's not's sufficient."
Farrell said he sent out an e-mail to the field staff at polling locations today because "we were getting calls wanting for clarification when these [Obama] letters surfaced," he said. "They wanted to know, do we have to let them be there all day to monitor the polls? And the answer was no."
Obama's campaign lawyer disputed Farrell's finding.
"The secretary of state is wrong on the facts," Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said. "We are correctly credentialed and are calling now to correct any misunderstanding to the contrary."
The idea behind having observers at the polls is for campaigns to make sure no one inside the voting stations is trying to exert influence on the outcome, either by electioneering, or by turning away people who have a right to be voting there. Farrell said state elections official did not want to inhibit campaigns from monitoring the elections, they merely wanted every campaign to use the proper procedures to stand in as observers.
"All political parties and candidates can have observers," Farrell said. "Having an open and transparent process is a good thing."
