UPDATE: Federal Judge throws out lawsuit against Husted over voting tabulator:
From Bloomberg
A Green Party candidate for one of Ohio’s 16 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives lost a bid for a court order blocking the use of electronic voting machines that he said might be tampered with.
U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost in Columbus today denied the request by Robert J. Fitrakis, who’s running in a district covering parts of that city, the state capital.
Fitrakis alleged in court papers filed yesterday that electronic voting machine software contain a “back door” through which vote tallies from today’s elections could be manipulated.
“Fitrakis has not provided actual evidence that demonstrates how this harm is a realistic possibility, much less how it is actual and imminent,” Frost said in a 10-page ruling after a hearing.
Time Interview with Ohio Sec. of State Jon Husted
In an interview with TIME on Monday afternoon, Husted shrugged off the criticism. “My job is to deliver an election that runs smoothly and well,” he said. He says some of the attacks are politically motivated. “People are going to attack you to obtain political advantage,” Husted said, “The goal of the other side is to make me look bad.” And indeed some Democrats are comparing Husted to Katherine Harris, the Secretary of State of Florida during the disastrous recount in 2000.
. . . Husted defends his handling of the expansion of early voting, and his efforts to block voting the weekend before the election. “We have the most liberal voting opportunities of any state in our area and I settled that issue fairly, uniformly and consistently across every county,” he says.
He also says he’s ready for possible court battles after the Tuesday’s vote if there is a recount that challenges some of his recent rule making. He says many of the attacks against him are preparing the ground for such court battles. “That’s absolutely the case, and I don’t lament that, it’s just life being Secretary of State in the most important swing state in the country,” he says. “People are going to sue and create controversy to prepare the environment for post-election contests.”
Think Progress: PA Judge Halts "Electioneering" outside Polls
..A judge in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania has issued an order to “halt electioneering outside a polling location in Homestead.” “Individuals outside the polls are prohibited from questioning, obstructing, interrogating or asking about any form of identification and/demanding any form of identification from any prospective voter,” the order says. Republicans had been asking people outside the polls to show identification. Under the current law, voters will still be asked to present IDs at the polls, but an ID is not required to vote
Plunderbund: True the Vote Forged Documents
All but one (Scott Rupert, an independent for U.S. Senate) of the six candidates whose names appeared on the original form had withdrawn permission to use their signatures prior to the submission of today’s forms. During the BOE meeting Candidate Terri Jamison spoke up to say her name was “forged” on the latest round of forms.
The form for appointing observers reads ‘election falsification is a 5th degree felony’. Election officials have confirmed that there will be a post-election investigation of True the Vote.
The forms have been rejected unanimously by all members (Rs and Ds) on the board. True the Vote observers will not be allowed in Franklin County polling locations tomorrow. Poll monitoring organizations expect they may still be stationed outside of polling locations.
Board member Zachary Manifold told us he was ”amazed that a group that goes to such extreme lengths to claim voting fraud in Ohio would knowingly forge or misuse signatures to try to gain access to Franklin County polling locations.”
