Covering Hillary's Voting Demagoguery, Press Ignores Ohio's 28 Days of Early Voting

June 6th, 2015 9:17 PM

Hillary's Clinton has called for what a Washington Post headline describes as a "sweeping expansion of voter access." While falsely accusing Republicans of preventing young people and minorities from voting, Mrs. Clinton is really pushing for widespread opportunities for fraud combined with a heavy dose of incumbent protection.

From reading the establishment press's coverage of Mrs. Clinton's "ambitious agenda" (that's what the New York Times called it), you would think that Ohio has one of the nation's most restrictive early-voting arrangments. It's not so, and Ohio Governor John Kasich justifiably rebutted that perception after Mrs. Clinton's speech.

The Post report by Anne Gearan and Niraj Chokshi noted that "Her campaign’s top lawyer, Marc Elias, has co-filed lawsuits over voting access in Ohio and Wisconsin — both key presidential battleground states with Republican governors who may join the 2016 race."

At the Associated Press, Ken Thomas noted the same thing — "Democrats have filed legal challenges to voting changes from GOP lawmakers in the presidential battleground states of Ohio and Wisconsin" — except that he "forgot" to mention Elias's involvement.

At the Times, Amy Chozick, shortly after a pargraph about Mrs. Clinton's claim to have helped register Hispanic voters in Texas in 1972, quoted Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee telling the audience at Mrs. Clinton's speech that "Ohio will hear it. Pennsylvania will hear it.”

As I noted in September, and as Ohio's Secretary of State has been telling everyone who will listen for years — a group which clearly doesn't include the establishment press — Ohio's early voting setup is among the most expansive (I would call it overly permissive) in the nation.

The following graphic was accurate as of just before the 2014 elections. The other states' situations may have changed, but Ohio's hasn't:

OhioSOSgraphicOnVoting

Despite the obviously very permissive situation in Ohio, leftists tried to force the state to expand early voting to 35 days before the 2014 elections, They took their complaint all the way to the Supreme Court, which by a 5-4 majority allowed the Buckeye State to stick with what it had planned.

In light of the facts, Governor Kasich, who is considering a 2016 presidential run, was obviously and justifiably upset with his state being targeted as a supposed perpetrator of voter suppression:

Partial transcript (beginning at 2:15):

BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS: Hillary Clinton had words about your home state of Ohio just yesterday, and about voting and access to it. She's going to sue Ohio. This is what she says.

HILLARY CLINTON: Today, Republicans are systematically and deliberatey trying to stop millions of American citizens from voting.

HEMMER: What do you think about that claim?

JOHN KASICH: First, of all, I think it's demagoguery. And secondly, if she wants to sue somebody, let her sue New York. In Ohio, we've got like 27 days of early voting, OK. 27 days, a couple of hundred hours. And in New York, the only early voting — there is none! The only voting that occurs is on Election Day. What is she talking about?

I like Hillary, but I gotta tell you — the idea that we are going to divide Americans and we’re going to use demagoguery, I don’t like it. Now, I haven’t said a word about Hillary, but to come into the State of Ohio and say we are repressing the vote when New York has only Election Day and we have 27 days, what’s she — come on! That’s just silliness, you know. I’m disappointed in her, frankly.

... Don’t be coming in and saying we are deliberately trying to keep people from voting when her own state has less opportunity for voting than my state — and she is going to sue my state? I mean, come on, that’s just silly, that’s not an attack, that’s just silly.

(after Hemmer read a statement from Ohio's Secretary of State indicating that Ohio has 28 days of early voting)

... In Ohio, we have 28 days. In New York, where she’s from, they have one day. Now, why are you suing me? Why don’t you go sue your own people? Why don’t you take care of business at home before you run around the country using these kind of demagogic statements that we don’t want people to vote? I mean it's ridiculous.

But obviously, facts don't matter to the Clinton campaign, or to the press.

For those who are unaware, New York's governor, whose state had no early-voting provision as of six months and still may not, is Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.