The @clevelanddotcom Ed Board is not mincing words: "LaRose has used the power of his office improperly to make it harder for voters in Cuyahoga County and the state’s other urban counties to cast their ballots."
LaRose is "overruling local elections officials on their bipartisan decisions about how best to keep elections orderly and safe, & ballots secure. LaRose is the one upending balance in the system and creating the litigation he has said he wanted to avoid."
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"But with less than three weeks to go before early voting starts, LaRose needs to explain actions that make it harder for elections officials -- by law, two Republicans and two Democrats running election boards in every county in Ohio -- to plan ahead and do their jobs."
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"...LaRose needs to explain why he is impairing efforts by local elections officials to plan ahead, to avoid voter confusion and potentially chaotic conditions that could impede voting."
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"...These are not the actions of a voting-access advocate. These are not the actions we expect from Frank LaRose. He needs to reverse course."
Report from Ohio, where a Sheriff is Attacking Freedom
Yesterday, I spoke in Kent to campaign for Yes on Issue 1.
But I also walked into a county where a sitting Sheriff is openly attacking the freedom of those he is supposed to serve.
WATCH/RT &
That’s right, the Sheriff of Portage County (not far from Cleveland and Akron, and home of Kent State), posted the following about citizens who display Harris/Waltz yard signs in the county he swears an oath to protect and defend (along with the US Constitution)…
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And as a result of this post, people began immediately posting yard sign locations, as well as even some names….
As Trump/Vance distract and divide us w their lies and dog whistles about Springfield, they also keep voters from focusing on THEIR extremism, and what would happen if they were elected.
Don’t let them succeed.
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WATCH/LISTEN….
Instead, go on offense!
As we hit the homestretch of the presidential and other races, explaining to voters the details of Project 2025 and Trump’s broader and toxic plans could not be of greater priority.
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And while it’s clear that America does not want what America’s right-wing is offering, recent polls (including that NY Times poll) also show that the right-wing plans are still not known nearly enough by most Americans.
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…when the far right takes over all the institutions of your state, including the courts (after meddling with the rules of how Ohio selects its courts).
To underscore how bad the ruling was, read some of the dissents from Democratic justices:
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Justice @JenniferBrunner : “The majority opinion reflects an abject failure of this court to perform an honest constitutional check on the ballot board’s work. We should be requiring a nearly complete redrafting of what is perhaps…”
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After law school, Vance went to California. When he moved back to Ohio, he announced it in a NY Times op-ed. (Who does that?!?)
But even worse, in that op-ed, he tried to make it look like he was making…
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…a big sacrifice to come to Ohio.
He acted as if he was taking one for the team by gracing us with his return. (“It wasn’t an easy choice. I scaled back my commitments to a job I love because of the relocation.”….“not every motivation is rational”).
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He and his wife apparently worried about the “unpredictable weather” here.
But, he suggests , coming home despite those worries was his way of making a choice that was best “for the country.”
My response: if you think this is taking one for the team, stay where you are
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The Sick GOP Strategy Re. Springfield—and fighting back effectively
A 🧵
What JD Vance, Donald Trump, Elon Musk are doing—spreading vile, racist and debunked conspiracy theories regarding migrants in Springfield, Ohio—is so deeply disturbing.
So sick. So dangerous.
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But….it’s important to see that what they are doing follows a strategy.
It’s the exact same pattern we’ve witnessed in recent cycles.
And it ties directly into Donald Trump’s killing of the immigration bill in the Senate earlier this year.
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Fully aware that most of what they stand for is deeply unpopular (think abortion bans, Project 2025, and most everything Trump and Vance talk about), what’s happening around Springfield and Haitian migrants is now their playbook come election time.
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The reason the far right is hell-bent on undermining independent courts in states is because in many cases, those courts remain the final check on power against highly gerrymandered legislatures.
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Three decisions in recent days underscore their importance. True wins for justice and democracy.
In Missouri, the Supreme Court reversed a cynical effort to deprive voters of their opportunity to protect reproductive freedom—
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reversing a lower court decision that had temporarily halted a measure for which citizens had far surpassed the required number of signatures.