The court walks through the arbitrary and irregular way in which the "drop box ban" came to be, beginning with the request for a legal opinion from Ohio's AG:
"In seeking a formal Opinion, the Secretary conceded that the answer to whether “there may be more than..."
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"one secure ballot ‘drop box’ in a county *** is not clear.”
No Opinion issued.
Three weeks later on August 11 the Secretary’s staff sent an email message stating he was “withdrawing this request for a formal Opinion of the Attorney General...."
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"... The following day the Secretary issued “Directive 2020-16.
Directive 2020-16 was adopted without any public notice, hearing, or comment. Although in seeking the Attorney General’s opinion three weeks earlier the Secretary acknowledged he had recently been asked..."
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"...about multiple drop boxes, the record shows no input was obtained from any board of elections, the major political parties, or ordinary citizens before he acted...."
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"...While expedited adoption of “temporary directives” (having effect only during the 90 days prior to an election and ending on the 40th day following an election) are allowed by R.C. 3501.053, this procedure left no administrative record for this court to consider."
END
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An email last week from @clevelanddotcom expressed dismay that Ohio politicians refuse to apologize that their universal voucher scheme is benefitting mostly suburban families already in private…
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schools.
Here’s some breaking news: no apologies are coming.
The results are not a “mistake.”
Not some error or flub.
They’re actually accomplishing exactly what they intend to. On a roll now, they will keep going with ferocity.
Accelerate.
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The goal Ohio’s and other legislatures had in mind when they “changed the rules” on vouchers was not “to give students in under-performing school districts a chance for a better education,” as the paper editorialized.
If you watch and listen to the key leaders closely, and
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Every year or so—often after a high-profile election—come the same columns I’ve read for years: “What’s Happened To Ohio?” or “What’s Wrong With Ohio?” or “Why Is Ohio No Longer a Bellwether State?”
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This past week, after Trump’s handpicked candidate won the Ohio GOP primary for Senate, such columns appeared again, including in The NY Times and NPR.
And most of these columns, usually from smart people I respect, lead me to one conclusion:
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I clearly have not done a good enough job distributing my book “Laboratories of Autocracy.”
Let me explain:
Because while these columns all delve into the same economic challenges and demographic shifts to scrutinize how those changes have impacted…
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Beyond making a comparison to 2020 that (as @knecessary perfectly captures) they may soon regret, Trump and his people are also pushing a narrative that 2019 was some type of banner year and that COVID interrupted it.
It’s a sneaky way to convince Americans that Trump policies were initially working.
Don’t buy it.
The truth is, in states like Ohio, job growth had already ground to a halt by the end of 2019, squandering the strong growth Trump had inherited from President Obama.
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At almost zero new jobs, 2019 was the worst jobs year in OH since the Great Recession.
@clevelanddotcom spelled this out on Jan 9, 2020, with this perfect opening line: “Republican President Donald Trump told a crowd of thousands Thursday in…
An email this morning from @clevelanddotcom wrote the following:
“Lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine changed the rules on school vouchers this year with a goal many find laudable, to give students in under-performing school districts a chance for a better education….”
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“Once the rules went into place, however, the vouchers were overwhelmingly grabbed by people in good districts, like Rocky River.
Did lawmakers [] admit they got it wrong, that the rules they created did not help the people they say were their targets? Again, we asked”
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“…The answer is no.”
I’m sorry.
This is unacceptably poor journalism.
It isn’t the truth.
Worse, it contributes to the misinformation.
The goal the legislature had in mind when they “changed the rules” was not “laudable, to give students in under-performing…
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Amid illegal efforts to overturn election results, a nation that wants to maintain a rule-of-law democracy MUST bring accountability BEFORE the next election.
Not doing so INVITES the very chaos & danger we are enduring now.
Here’s why:
WATCH & RT
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The delay means Trump & his allies know they will only face accountability after the next election
Which means they have an intense incentive to 1) run again to stop the process, and 2) cross every line and break additional laws needed to win in order to avoid accountability
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The marginal punishment for the second wave of lawbreaking isn’t much more than the accountability they face for the first wave, so why hold back?
So delays in justice have invited true lawlessness into this campaign cycle, and our democracy overall.
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The numbers I present here will stun you, but the truth is, they’re exactly what the right-wing statehouse intends. And what you’d expect once you see what they’ve done.
WATCH, RT and…
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We all remember it well, right?
The original narrative (ie. sales pitch) was that private school vouchers were intended to assist kids in poverty and in struggling urban public schools in gaining access to “better” private schools.
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And in many places, that’s how it was designed. At the very beginning.
And then…they got rid of all the criteria that served that stated goal.