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twotap
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Republicans heeding Rush Limbaugh's call to vote for Hillary
Click-2-Listen
By Ed Richter
Hillarys false sense of a comeback. 
Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — Republican voters in the Middletown area appear to be heeding radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's call for them to cast their ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the March 4 primary election.
Several precinct judges in Middletown and Franklin Twp. said they've seen a "larger than usual" number of Republicans switching over to Democratic ballots. With Republican presidential candidate John McCain having all but sewn up the GOP nomination, Limbaugh urged Republican voters to cast their ballots for Clinton. His reason: To bloody up Barack Obama politically.
Extras
Limbaugh said Feb. 29 on the O'Reilly Factor television show that the battle between Clinton and Obama was "
too good a soap opera"
and that Clinton needed to stay in the race as long as possible to bloody up Obama politically in a way McCain would not.
And apparently some voters were listening.
Marilyn Hatfield, an associate judge in Ward 3, precinct 3 at Christ United Methodist Church in Middletown, said she's seen more Democrats than normal show up at the polls. Hatfield, who has worked in that precinct since 1989, said the precinct is usually almost totally Republican.
"Several people said they were pulling Democratic ballots because of what Rush Limbaugh said on his show," Hatfield said.
In Ward 3, precincts 1 and 5, a total of 26 Republicans switched ballots. Another 10 Republicans cast Democratic ballots in Ward 3, precinct 7.
A precinct judge in Franklin Twp., who declined to give his name, said, "I've seen more switching than what I would consider normal."
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or erichter@coxohio.com.
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Tempers Flare as Contests Heat Up
By Matthew Mosk and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 5, 2008; A14
More Chaos.
Tempers flared at several Texas voting precincts, and the campaigns of Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) traded accusations of rule-breaking yesterday during the hours leading up to evening caucuses where one-third of the state's delegates were to be awarded.
In Ohio, elections officials held some polls open for an additional 90 minutes because of winter weather and ballot shortages. The extended voting caused a delay of several hours before the state could ultimately be called for Clinton, largely because of late voting in the Cleveland area, an expected Obama stronghold.
In Texas, the two-step process of a primary vote during the day, followed by an evening caucus, had participants waiting under the stars as voting crowds swamped the event. Their turnout delayed the caucus events at numerous precincts across the state. In Laredo, a volunteer organizer brought a microphone and a portable speaker from home to try to calm the crowd. But he was drowned out by chants of "We want to vote!" and "We're getting cheated!"
Irregularities in Texas had the campaigns leveling a series of charges against each other: that operatives were trying to gain an upper hand by loading up caucus sheets with signatures before the evening events started, that biased precinct chairs were locking the caucus venues before rival supporters could enter, and that campaign supporters had stolen the packet of materials that granted them control of the caucus site.
Officials from the Texas Democratic Party issued memos urging the campaigns to play fair. But party officials grew increasingly frustrated with the feuding as the day wore on. "These are two professional campaigns with professional organizations, and we expect both to abide by the rules," said Hector Nieto, a party spokesman.
The Clinton campaign took a more aggressive posture, holding a conference call with reporters to allege what Texas campaign manager Ace Smith called a "tremendously disturbing pattern" of behavior by Obama supporters. "What's happening tonight is just truly an outrage," Smith said.
In an aggressive bit of pushback, Bob Bauer, general counsel to the Obama campaign, jumped the conference call to dispute the allegations and demand the Clinton campaign "stop attacking the caucus process."
"I'm curious to know how is this any different than the series of complaints you've registered against every caucus that you lose?" Bauer asked. He called the Clinton campaign's allegations "meritless."
Many Texas Democrats knew this problem was coming.
With more than 8,000 precincts and not enough volunteers to serve as captains for the caucus events, the Texas Democratic Party decided that the first person in the door at 7:15 p.m. who picks up the packet of materials from the election judge at the precinct site becomes chair.
"If you have a precinct that doesn't have a chair, the first person there picks it up and gets it. The rules are designed to create a race to the packet," said State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, a Clinton supporter who represents El Paso.
Clinton campaign lawyers said they grew more concerned after reports of irregularities from supporters. Carolyn Arambula, an advocate for injured workers in San Antonio and a Clinton supporter, said she called the campaign after spotting an Obama operative collecting signatures on a caucus sign-in sheet early in the day. The sheets were supposed to be filled out at the caucus event as proof of each candidate's support.
"He had a clipboard in his hand. I recognized the form as the one you would fill out for the caucus meeting," Arambula said. "I thought, 'My God, have you had people fill this out?' "
After leveling the accusation, she said the two exchanged tense words outside Rudder Middle School, where voting was occurring.
Ohio's elections did not unfold without controversy, either, although state officials mostly blamed a wintry mix that fell on portions of the state. Flood warnings in southern Ohio prompted declarations that, if regular polling places were flooded, voters could go to their local board of elections. State officials said some polling places lost power.
"Other than the weather, it has gone pretty well," Brian Shinn, assistant general counsel for the Ohio secretary of state, said in a telephone interview last night.
Obama's campaign argued that polls should be kept open an extra 90 minutes in precincts in Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland, because of ballot shortages, as well as several other counties with large urban centers.
A federal judge rejected the other counties but agreed to extend voting by an additional 90 minutes in about 21 polling sites mostly on the eastern end of Cleveland, which has the highest concentration of African American voters in the state. This followed a judge's decision to keep polling sites in Sandusky County, toward the northwest portion of the state, open because ballot printers broke down |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:09 am |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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| Hillybilly won the vote count, but what about the delegate totals? |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:20 am |
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Demeralda
F L I N T O I D
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Obama is still ahead in delegates.
It's funny how everyone acts like race isn't that big a deal, but it's the linchpin for how this nomination is going. In unguarded moments, MANY people I thought were, if not liberal, at least not bigots will admit that they can't live with a black president. And yes, black is the polite word substitution.
I'm telling ya, there are people pooling their money right now to find an assassin. |
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Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:35 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
I'm telling ya, there are people pooling their money right now to find an assassin.
If thats true I would suspect the Clintoons to be behind it. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:39 pm |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
Demeralda schreef:
Obama is still ahead in delegates.
It's funny how everyone acts like race isn't that big a deal, but it's the linchpin for how this nomination is going. In unguarded moments, MANY people I thought were, if not liberal, at least not bigots will admit that they can't live with a black president. And yes, black is the polite word substitution.
I'm telling ya, there are people pooling their money right now to find an assassin.
Skin color and/or gender have nothing to do with qualifications. It's sad that in the 21st century, people still have a problem with it.
I don't even want to think about the uproar an assassination would bring. It would make the Detroit & LA riots seem like a Sunday school picnic. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:48 pm |
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