THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

And in writing about the latest round of Republican whining, the Toledo Blade give a good thumbnail history of Republican voter fraud, Ohio style.

NATIONALLY and in Ohio, the Republican Party has a long and shameful history of suppressing the vote to gain partisan advantage in elections, mostly by targeting minorities. Now they're at it again, with complaints about a law written, ironically, by GOP operatives in the General Assembly.

The law, which took effect at the beginning of 2006, created a five-day window at the end of September during which Ohioans will be able to register to vote, then immediately cast their ballot under provisions that allow both "no fault" absentee voting along with early voting, starting 35 days before the traditional Nov. 4 Election Day.

Republicans now claim the statute constitutes an "illegal loophole" that raises the threat of election fraud. But the law was in use in 2006 without problems and it wasn't an issue until Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign announced a push to take advantage of it among the state's 470,000 college students.

God forbid US citizens should be allowed to vote, especially if they aren't going to vote Republican. But, as the Blade points out, this is just another attempt in a long history of Republican skulduggery.

Suppressing the vote harks back to the poll taxes and faux citizenship tests in the post-Civil War era that were employed to prevent newly enfranchised blacks from voting.

In more recent times, another tactic was to spread the ominous word in black precincts before Election Day that anyone showing up to vote just might risk arrest if they happen to have any outstanding warrants.

The latest versions of vote suppression have the same goal but utilize less-blatant devices. They include legalization of practices aimed at thwarting certain groups that might not vote Republican; unnecessarily confusing directives on registration and voting like the ones issued in 2004 by then-Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, and lawsuits, which GOP functionaries in Columbus are threatening now.

With a Democrat as Secretary of State this year, the good people of Ohio have a chance at an honest election this year.