Johnson heads to Ohio to aid voters there
By TOM BERRY
Staff Writer
Legal battles over voter registration is predicted to heat up during Tuesday's election just as it has in the past and former Appeals Court Judge Rick Johnson is in Ohio as part of an effort to make sure every vote is legal and every vote counts.
Johnson told the Murray Ledger & Times this morning that he has volunteered to serve as one of several legal counsels who will man a voter call-in center for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the battleground state. Johnson will field legal questions from voters who have been denied access to the ballot box, voter registration or other irregularities.
When Johnson, a Democrat from Graves County who ran against Carroll Hubbard for the party's nod for the First District state Senate seat in the May Primary, volunteered to help with the Obama campaign, he was asked to use his legal skills to help guarantee a fair election in Ohio.
“I'm excited about it. They asked me if I would be interested in helping with voter protection and voter rights issues,” Johnson said. “With Missouri being a battleground state I thought they would send me to St. Louis because I know there have been some issues there in past elections, but Ohio I guess is such an important state they needed additional people up there.”
Johnson will attend a training session this afternoon.
“They've got us contacting people around the country monitor and observing or whatever. I guess when I've been trained I'll start instructing some others,” he said. “(Tuesday) I'll be supervising a call-in center at their headquarters there and helping with questions and working with the legal team.”
Johnson said voters who have run into difficulty registering to vote for questionable reasons, were turned away at the polls or want to discuss legal complaints concerning balloting will be the focus of his work which will be performed in two aspects.
“One of them will be that they will have a voter hot line center where if they are having problems such as they have been turned away they have a number to call,” Johnson said. “Then we can ask them some questions just like you would if you were an attorney and a client calls you and believes they have been wronged. You start asking them some questions to see if they are in the right or perhaps they are not qualified for some reason.”
It's possible the work may also involve legal issues with efforts filed by lawyers working with the Ohio Republican Party or the campaign for Arizona Sen. John McCain. Four years ago, Johnson said the Republican Party of Ohio sent out registered letters to newly-registered Democratic voters; those who did not respond to the letters were legally disqualified from voting.
“Of course thousands, and even tens of thousands, of them weren't claimed,” he said. “But of course we know that could be for various reasons. It could be that someone is hiding from a creditor or somebody is lazy or even it listed an address that's got a digit wrong. Well the Republican Party took those letters to the election commission - which very conveniently for them, the chairman of the party was also chairman of the commission - and these people were stricken. They were disqualified.”
However the Ohio Democratic Party filed suit and the move was overturned. “The judge ruled that failure to pick up a registered letter is not evidence of fraudulent application for voting,” Johnson added. “But the Democrats contend that the word didn't get out to all the voters because it was all right down to the wire. So that is one example of where there could be some hands-on litigation. I don't know exactly what they have in the mix right now, but I'm assuming there could be some lawsuits.”
Should lawsuits occur, Johnson said he would likely serve a support role in doing legal research, but not be directly involved.
Voting irregularities have already cropped up this election season such as the controversy over voter registration efforts by ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The group has been accused of registration irregularities in several key swing states including Ohio, according to a Chicago Tribune report last month.
ACORN was labeled a “quasi-criminal organization” by the chief lawyer for the Republican National Committee and the McCain campaign has accused the organization of voter fraud. Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt dismissed the charges as an attempt by McCain to change the subject as his poll numbers decline amid the growing financial crisis.
ACORN claims to have registered a record 1.3 million new voters this year; primarily Democrats.
Story created Nov 03, 2008 - 14:11:48 EST.
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