Some people believe that elections were stolen in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio in 2004, through malicious mischief by those states’ secretaries of state — the officials responsible for running elections. Many voters worry about the potential for stolen elections this year, too. I’ve said the cure for this worry is to win big: it’s much easier to steal a very close election than a blow-out. Given the record of the Republicans in recent years, most races shouldn’t be close at all.
It turns out some Republicans here in Ohio have thought about that, and have a plan B:
Voters in Ohio can be forgiven if they feel they have been beamed out of the Midwest and dropped into a third-world autocracy. The latest news from the state’s governor’s race is that the Republican nominee, Kenneth Blackwell, who is also the Ohio secretary of state, could rule that his opponent is ineligible to run because of a technicality. We’d like to think that his office would not ultimately do that, or that if it did, such a ruling would not be allowed to stand. But the mere fact that an elected official and political candidate has the authority to toss his opponent out of a race is further evidence of a serious flaw in our democracy.
Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee, is leading Mr. Blackwell by as much as 28 points, according to one recent poll. In their panic, some Blackwell supporters have hit on the idea of trying to prevent the election from occurring. One of them filed a complaint alleging that Mr. Strickland, who is a member of Congress, does not live in the apartment where he is registered to vote.
A few years ago, I would have laughed this off. Now, I can’t. I’m convinced there’s nothing these guys wouldn’t do.