I am just going to channel
BradBlog here.
Even if you don't buy the concerns about voting fraud.
Even if you think the dems are on a roll.
This is just weird.
Redistricting lost in Ohio more or less as the polls predicted. A bond measure won more or less as the polls predicted.
On two of five statewide referenda in Ohio last week
the numbers were almost the reverse of the poll the Columbus dispatch did the week before These involved making access to absentee ballots easier and revising campaign contribution limits. ON a third, which would have lifted election oversight from the hands of the corrupt Sec of State, it was not a reverse, but a huge swing against the referendum.
Something is rotten in the state of Ohio, and we need to pay attention before the 2006 elections. A corrupt and desperate party will use a tool like this if it does exist to retain power.
The list is as follows (from BradBlog):
Issue 1-$2 Billion state Bond Initiative-
CD Poll: Yes, 53% No, 27% , Undecided 20%
Vote: Yes, 54% No 45% Undecided -
Issue 2 - Easier absentee balloting
CD Poll: Yes 59%, No 33% Undecided 9%
Vote: Yes 36% No 63%
Issue 3 - Revise campaign contribution limits
CD Poll: Yes 61% No 25% Undecided 14%
Vote: Yes 33% No 66%
Issue 4 - Ind commission to draw congressional districts
CD Poll: Yes 31% No 45% Undecided 25%
Vote: YEs 30% No 69%
Issue 5 Ind board instead of Sec of State to oversee elections
CD POll Yes 41% No 43% Undecided 16%
Vote: Yes 29% No 70%
YOu can see-- the state bond and redistricting issues matched up well with the Columbus Dispatch poll. Issues 2,3,5 which would have helped to reverse some of the Ohio Republican Party shenanigans of recent years
were defeated with numbers WAY outside the lines of the Dispatch polls.
I will not go so far as Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis to vouch for the wonderful accuracy of these polls. I suspect theyare, like many local polls, somewhat flawed. But to call two propositions nearly right
but for the undecideds and three that would have curtailed the power of Sec. of State Blackwell and a Republican party establishment that is in deep trouble--well, that is troubling.
BradBlog also notes that half the
Ohio counties now have Diebold touch screen machines.
I don't want to go to the tin foil realm, but hey, these numbers cry out for serious inquiries. Can we roil some dem leaders to do so?