"Block the Vote, Ohio Remix"

It's happening again it would seem.

NYTimes: Block the Vote, Ohio Remix:

As the state gears up for a very competitive election season this fall, its secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, has put in place "emergency" regulations that could hit voter registration workers with criminal penalties for perfectly legitimate registration practices. The rules are so draconian they could shut down registration drives in Ohio.

Mr. Blackwell, who also happens to be the Republican candidate for governor this year, has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2004, he instructed county boards of elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock — about the thickness of a postcard. His order was almost certainly illegal, and he retracted it after he came under intense criticism. It was, however, in place long enough to get some registrations tossed out.

This year, Mr. Blackwell's office has issued rules and materials that appear to require that paid registration workers, and perhaps even volunteers, personally take the forms they collect to an election office. Organizations that run registration drives generally have the people who register voters bring the forms back to supervisors, who can then review them for errors. Under Mr. Blackwell's edict, everyone involved could be committing a crime. Mr. Blackwell's rules also appear to prohibit people who register voters from sending the forms in by mail. That rule itself may violate federal elections law.

...But there is one clear way that Ohio's election system is corrupt. Decisions about who can vote are being made by a candidate for governor. Mr. Blackwell should hand over responsibility for elections to a decision maker whose only loyalty is to the voters and the law.

Read that last paragraph again. Maybe that's why some don't want to see this issue addressed.

Another notable is that the NYTimes is now joining a growing chorus of mainstream news sources in casting light to these concerns. It's only an editorial, but it is a start. See other coverage from Lou Dobbs and USAToday, and from Rolling Stone, which got the ball rolling last week.

Peter Dauo's triangle could be forming. Other bloggers would need to join The Brad Blog in the conversation and other mainstream media services would need to further bring this to the public.

Then again, the story could drop tomorrow when the latest non-news de jour is cast our way to devour and get heated about.