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You are here: Home / Turns out, it was all a big misunderstanding

Turns out, it was all a big misunderstanding

by | 74 Comments

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I hope he still has to appear:

After being summoned to court by a federal judge, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted on Friday backed away from his order that would have banned counties from planning for early voting.

Husted’s original order had essentially ignored a ruling by U.S. District Judge Peter Economus, who declared that early voting in the three days before the election could move forward. Economus sided with the Obama campaign, who sued Ohio to get the early voting re-implemented.

In a court filing on Friday afternoon, Husted said he “apologizes to the federal district court” for creating what he called the “misimpression” that he was ignoring the order. “The Secretary would never intentionally contravene an order issued by the federal district court or any other court — and this case is no exception,” the state wrote.

The state of Ohio also requested a stay of the court’s order until their appeal is heard with the Sixth Circuit.

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    trollhattan

    Sissy-boy. He should make that pesky judge take it back. And then, a round of, “I know you are, but what am I?”

  3. 3.

    Violet

    “Misimpression”? There’s a weasel word. I hope the judge still makes him appear, too. He deserves a good smackdown, but it would also serve as a warning to other idiots who might want to try the same thing.

  4. 4.

    Felinious Wench

    Loved his “but I didn’t mean it to look exactly what it looked like” apology.

    Being on the business end of a federal judge is not where anyone wants to be.

  5. 5.

    AHH onna Droid

    They’re spreading FUD right out of the Microsoft playbook. There is intense confusion about voting rules, even among activists.

  9. 9.

    danah gaz

    Bullshit on the stay. I hope it’s denied. If it’s granted I suspect the appeal will last until well after the election. Mission Accomplished.

  10. 10.

    Joshua Norton

    I hope he still has to appear:

    He does unless the judge rescinds the original order. As of now he still has to show up regardless of his current feeble actions to rectify the situation.

  12. 12.

    KG

    @Felinious Wench:

    eing on the business end of a federal judge is not where anyone wants to be.

    As one of my law school professors said once, “the closest thing to a fiefdom as exists in the United States is the Courtroom of a United States Federal District Judge”

  13. 13.

    KG

    @danah gaz: election matters generally get fast tracked in the Courts of Appeal (there are certain categories that automatically get fast tracked and then you can request fast tracking), this will get heard before the election because judges typically don’t fuck around when it comes to things like the constitutional right to vote.

  14. 14.

    Punchy

    “misimpression”

    Just making up words, they are. I’m surprised he didn’t accuse the judge of misspeaking, misremembering, mishearing, and taking things out of context.

  15. 15.

    Ash Can

    You know, if I were that judge, I’d be even more pissed off with this “walk-back.” It’s like catching a kid stealing cookies out of the cookie jar, then watching the kid insist, with his mouth full of cookie, that he didn’t do it. In a just world, the judge would immediately send the federal marshals to Husted’s house to physically drag his ass into court, where the judge would beat said ass with a shovel.

  18. 18.

    piratedan

    what would be apt…. would be for the judge to find him in contempt and sentence him to 300 hours of community service, I think 100 hours registering voters in the cities of Cleveland, Toledo and Cincinnati outta do it.

  22. 22.

    gex

    I couldn’t tell or not if they were trying to force him to send in feds to get the white separatist party’s base to fear that Obama’s started coming after them.

    But he backed down. The above would be a bold, principled stand. Albeit for shitty principles. These guys don’t have principles. They are opportunists and bullies. I should have expected that he’d cave.

  23. 23.

    Steve

    Okay, but let’s stick to the bottom line here. The SoS seems to be saying that each county is entitled to have a separate vote on whether (i) they will let military and non-military voters alike vote early during the weekend prior to Election Day, or (ii) they will have no early voting during that weekend at all. There would be a uniform statewide schedule for those days, but only the counties that decided to have early voting at all would have to follow it.

    I had thought it was already settled that every county would have military voting on those three days, and this lawsuit was simply about adding non-military voting to the list. Now the SoS is telling the counties “since the Court has said that we have to give non-military voters the same rights as military voters, you can take back the three days of military voting if you like.”

    Kay, am I getting this wrong?

  29. 29.

    Argon

    That’s the sound of Ohio’s Secretary of State eating yet another bag of d***s. Maybe Husted should open a booth at the state fair and sell ’em, deep fried, to the rest of the Republicans in the legislature.

  31. 31.

    General Stuck

    It’s not quite time yet, for wingnuts in high places to start ignoring court orders and the like. There is still a chance that Romney will defeat Obama, with a happy wingnut ending. If not, then the civil disobedience will need to be planned and orchestrated nationally, in states that are red, or sometimes purple. One lone wingnut Secretary of State, is easy for the feds to focus on for contempt charges. Happened recently in AZ, Georgia, and one or two other states, where the eagerness just got the better of them to soon. So they had their navels read by jeevus, as they backed away from overt rebellion.

    edit – left out the US congress and their pledges to monkey wrench the fed government from governing if Obama and dems win big, or small.

  32. 32.

    Some Loser

    @me:
    Wait! Wouldn’t a law like that be patently Unconstitutional? Holy shit! He really haven’t read the Constitution!

  36. 36.

    MikeJ

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Am I the only person who, when seeing “punter for the Ravens” thinks, “a lot of people watch sports” before I think “guy who kicks the ball”?

    But good for him regardless of my stupidity. I hope that him speaking out convinces some of the punters.

  37. 37.

    artem1s

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    that was indeed a thing of beauty. can’t wait to see it go viral.

    something is happening here. people are finally standing up to the bullies in the GOP and telling them exactly what they can do with their alternate realities.

  40. 40.

    LanceThruster

    @Ash Can:

    I certainly hope there’s a legal precedent for this that can be cited, although there’s nothing wrong with establishing a new precedent.

  41. 41.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Just found this comment over at The Fogbow from a Think Progress piece on voting rights in PA. In addition to the elderly and minorities not having ID neither do the Amish, and apparently they all vote republican.

    Actually the Republican State Representative for the Lancaster County area of Pennsylvania just raised this very issue. Because 90% of the voting Amish and Mennonites are Republican he was suddenly very worried about every single eligible citizen being allowed to vote. They are working on an exception for these groups. I think all they will need is a letter from their religious leader. Funny how it is easier if you are Republican, or at least funny that suddenly a Republican legislator is worried.

    http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/09/04/793811/meet-alice-the-105-year-old-who-was-almost-too-old-to-vote-under-pennsylvanias-voter-id-law/

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    It is my hope that the judge still opens several new orifices for this vile piece of fascist shit.

  43. 43.

    jl

    Speaking of misunderstandings, looks like Clint is going on a ‘splaining tour.

    Eastwood: ‘When I Saw The Stool Sitting There, It Gave Me The Idea’
    http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/eastwood-when-i-saw-the-stool-sitting-there-it-gave-me-the-idea.php

    Did the GOP not understand they were dealing with a creative artiste? i think second and third rate artistic types make the best political spokespeople for anything other than a soundbite or scripted piece, if you are going to use artistic types. No telling what the first raters will do.

    I’m pretty sure Robin Williams is a lefty who, if he votes, will vote for Obama. But what fool would let him loose in front of the DNC convention for five minutes, or for however long he decided to act out in front of the crowd?

    Edit: And yeah, sure, his act was bad, but look at the material he had to work with. Could anyone do any better? Now if you got some hack actor or comic out there, he would have failed in a very conventional way, and we all would be happy about it, every Dem and GOPer among us.

  44. 44.

    LanceThruster

    @artem1s:

    People have been telling them for some time, but as bullies are wont to do, it doesn’t sink in as long as they have the upper hand provided by the shrieking of the rabble.

    As with the boy who cried wolf, more people are waking up to the fact that the basic difference between them and the extremists is miniscule.

  46. 46.

    Gordon, the Big Express Engine

    O/T tech question. Which requires more bandwidth?

    A. Live stream sporting event with second live stream from the same website as a picture in picture.

    B. just the first live stream, no pip

    Trying to settle a lunch time debate! Thanks!

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    You silly goose, the kicker kicks the kickoffs, field goals and extra points, and the punter kicks the punts. Two totally different things.

    (Seriously, they are sort of different enough that it makes sense to have two separate kickers–“makes sense” in the context of 40-50 people on the sideline to play an 11-man game, that is.)

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    @Gordon, the Big Express Engine:

    This seems so simple that I must be missing something. Is the PIP done at their end or your end? If the former, you’re just receiving one stream. If the latter, you’re receiving two streams, and the fact that they are coming from the same site doesn’t ameliorate that, unless there is some arcane Web-fu that I am not aware of (all too possible). So just the one stream would require less bandwidth.

  59. 59.

    Napoleon

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    The kicker is kicking the ball, ordinarily, from a set position(held by someone on a tee) which he is allowed to do at the kickoff, which occures at the beginning of a half or when points have just been scored, or in an attempt to score an extra point after a touchdown. A punt occures as part of a “normal” play during a series of plays, normally in the last play a team is allowed in order to get a First Down. You have (at least in the US version) 4 plays to go 10 yards. If you are on your 4th play either you 1)get the yardage you need, 2)surrender possession if you do not, or 3)you are permitted to kick it down field, but you are not permitted (or perhaps it is simply not paractical) to do it from a set position. So what happens is the quarterback is replaced by someone who then drop kick the ball down field when the center puts it into play by hiking it to the punter. So the skill set is somewhat differant between the two positions.

  60. 60.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    What’s the difference?

    Punting = held kick; kicking = place kick. Sort of like how a fullback in rugby union might kick the penalties while the fly-half kicks to touch, just more specialised. They’re actually starting to recruit a few Aussie rules players to punt in the American game because that sport’s all about long, accurate kicks.

  61. 61.

    FormerSwingVoter

    For those who now love Chris Kluwe as much as I have for a bit now, his twitter:

    http://www.twitter.com/ChrisWarcraft

    He plays for the Vikings, plays bass in a decent indie band (Tripping Icarus), plays way too many computer games (hence the handle), and is always rambling on about whatever book or graphic novel he’s gotten into recently.

    He’s also very outspoken, though that seems like an understatement now. I liked this:

    http://deadspin.com/5670864/unnamed-viking-expresses-thoughts-on-new-nfl-safety-rules-via-white-board

  62. 62.

    RareSanity

    @Gordon, the Big Express Engine:

    If you have to open another browser window/tab, you’re going to be using twice the bandwidth. If it is a “built-in” function of a single “video player”…it’s a push (as far as the argument), because the amount of bandwidth will actually the same in both instances (PIP on or off).

    It all boils down to who is actually “creating” the PIP…if you are creating it (by opening another window/tab, you are actually establishing a second stream.

    If you hit a button on the video player, and the PIP shows up, it’s still the same stream you were using before (with the same bandwidth), the provider just changed what was being streamed. Think of it as when they use green screens on TV. There’s a little green square in the video for the sporting event. If PIP is off, then the green square has that portion of the main sporting event “projected” on it. When you turn PIP on, they “project” whatever the other thing is. However, the bandwidth requirement hasn’t changed because the same number of bits are being sent, whether PIP is on or not.

  64. 64.

    NCSteve

    His response to the Obama campaign’s motion is here:

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/07/ohio-secretary-of-state-apologizes-for-trying-to-stifle-early-voting/

    He says he’s “rescinded” the “we’re not gonna do what the judge told us to do” order, but he nowhere says he’s issued an order mandating compliance with the judge’s order. And he hasn’t. Instead, he (now, finally) asks the judge to stay his own order pending appeal.

    Which basically means Husted’s left it up to all the local officials to decide whether or not they should comply after having sent a signal that he (Husted) sure as heck isn’t gonna do anything if they don’t.

    Oh, yeah. He’s still got to appear and explain himself, alright. You betcha.

  65. 65.

    Valdivia

    Very late to the thread but can someone explain to me why the military groups don’t want other people to vote early? WTH is that about? How do others voting early affect them? Or have I got their position wrong?

  66. 66.

    Less Popular Tim

    @Gordon, the Big Express Engine: As you’ve posed the question, the second live stream is by definition an extra stream, thus more bandwidth. You are receiving the full picture of the large picture, even though you’ve blocked some of the large picture with the second stream.

    RareSanity and Steeplejack are correct also; as they have pointed out, in order for the bandwidth to be the same, the PIP would have to be a function of the server that you could select, so that a single stream of the large picture also containing the PIP would be the image being streamed to your client.

    Either you or your friend is an idiot, I’m sure it’s your friend. He owes you lunch.

  67. 67.

    Steve

    @Valdivia: The military wants to preserve the principle that they can sometimes be given special privileges when it comes to voting. As an abstract principle, no one really contests that.

  68. 68.

    JR in WV

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    There are four different kinds of kicks in American Football:

    Punts, where the object it to kick the ball as far as possible to the other team, including out-of-bounds, but not into the end-zone which brings the ball out to the receiving team’s 20 yard line. The receiving team can return the punt unless the receiver calls for a fair-catch, in which case the kicking team cannot interfere with the catch and the ball cannot be advanced.

    Kick-offs where the object is to kick the ball as far as possible from a tee, but not out-of-bounds, and if into the end-zone, as deep as possible. The ball will be spotted at the receiving team’s 20 unless it is returned,

    Field Goals where the object is to kick the ball through the uprights and above the horizontal bar of hte goal posts, The kicking team gets 3 points for this kick, and a very long kick would be over 50 yards.

    Extra Points where the object is to kick the ball as in a field goal, but after a touchdown, from a scrimmage line at the 3 yard line after a touchdown. This kick is for one point following 6 points awarded for the touchdown.

    Often an American football team will have different kickers with better skills on one or the other of these kicks, but usually not more than 2 men. Frequently these kickers were soccer (Eurooean football) players sucked into American Football for the big bucks.

    Often kickers hold points scored records for American Football teams after kicking hundreds of field goals and extra points.

  69. 69.

    gvg

    @Valdivia: I don’t think the military has anything to do with these suppression laws.

    As I understand it, Voting rights act? says you can’t have different rules for different groups. The military gets exceptions made so they have time to vote even if they are overseas in the middle of a war. Perfectly logical=they are risking their lives to defend us, we don’t want to deprive them of the most precious right. Historically I think they weren’t able to vote when ships took months to get back home but in modern times, they get absentee ballots. In fact I think the whole absentee ballots were invented because of soldiers voting.

    The declining demographic GOP wants to keep Dem voters from voting them out of office. They want to shorten the early voting time frame because that is a demographic that has trended Democratic BUT cutting the military vote short would be a gotcha stupidity in front of the electorate AND that group trends GOP somewhat so they are trying to have it both ways. In addition they are trying to convince the military and their friends that when the Dems try to stop it, the Dems are trying to cut the militarys voting time instead of keeping everyone at the same length of time=not cutting everyone except the military.

    They are trying to use the respect due soldiers to cloak their own selfish acts. A generation ago alot of both parties had served, now not many GOP have and I think they are somewhat dangerous to the soldiers (stupid wars & cuts to vet benefits)

  72. 72.

    debbie

    @ Litlebritdifrnt:

    Voter purges in Florida and Colorado find almost no confirmed non-citizens.

    Priceless! Think of all the bad will generated by this effort. Uncovering one non-citizen = Losing 1,000 votes at the very least. And in two key states!

    This, plus Husted’s public humiliation is making this a very good day.

  73. 73.

    Just One More Canuck

    @JR in WV: For the Canadians here, you can also get a single point if a field goal goes wide or a punt goes into th endzone. If the defending team doesn’t run it out, the kicking team gets a single point. It makes for exciting endings to games sometimes

  74. 74.

    joel hanes

    @General Stuck:

    The Starr witchhunt panty-raid investigation served the Clintons and administration with over 2000 Congressional subpoenas, and got 100% compliance.

    Karl Rove and Harriet Meiers both declined to appear after being served with Congressional subpoenas.

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