A Reminder

From Rising Hegemon:

THE REPUBLICANS IN THE STATE OF OHIO CHEATED AND DELIVERED THE ELECTION TO BUSH!!

The debate over the unequal distribution of voting machines in Ohio is not a matter of crazy logic or a review of a ledger. The screaming nut-wing on Fox "news" and in talk radio and other nether regions where the light of rational enlightenment thought has been repeatedly attacked state over and over that there could not have been election fraud. But they are wrong.

The claims of fraud are accurate. They are accurate for a simple reason: the people behind the distribution of these machines, paper provisional ballots, and poll workers were republicans who were part of the Bush "re" election campaign. These were not the people running the polls. Ohio law requires an equal number of republican and democrats running the precinct (of course, this is based on previous voting and self identification as a republican or democrat which could never be wrong).

But as Ohio's top election figure, Kenneth Blackwell, a republican who worked on Bush's campaign in Ohio, supervised the direct distribution of voting machines throughout the state of Ohio. But... but but but, the republicans scream: "There were democrats and republicans in every precinct in Ohio. Nothing bad happen here unless the democrats colluded!" Wrong, wrong, and wrong again.

The democrats were not in charge of distribution of the voting machines themselves, republicans were. I am sure that republicans would not send fewer voting machines to largely democratic precincts in the state because that would lead to long lines and possibly discourage democrats from voting (and that could make a big difference in a close election). And since Mr. Blackwell assures us that he distributed the machines fairly, we should believe him, right? Because telling the truth and acting truthfully is a self-professed republican value. Of course, Mr. Blackwell accepted money himself illegally, but its ok because he is going to give it back.