Ohio...What A Mess

As reported by the New York Times "Kenneth Blackwell [the Ohio Republican nominee for governor], who is also the Ohio secretary of state, could rule that his opponent is ineligible to run because of a technicality."

That’s right, it is possible that one candidate in the race for governor could stop his Democratic opponent, Ted Strickland, from running because a supporter of Blackwell filed a complaint that Strickland does not live in the condo that he registered to vote under. Strickland has two homes in Ohio, and NO ONE is saying that he does not live in Ohio, but the complaint is that he does not reside in the house that he is registered under.

Also according to the New York Times, "The county board that heard [the complaint] broke down 2 to 2, on party lines, about whether to hold a hearing." And with a deadlock the case is automatically given to the Ohio's secretary of state’s office. But the catch is that Republican candidate Blackwell is Ohio's secretary of state. Thus he has authority to rule on this "technicality" and make his opponent ineligible. In his defense he has "designated his assistant secretary to handle duties that could conflict with his candidacy." But as the same article points out that "passing these matters on to a subordinate who is a political ally and owes his job to the candidate hardly removes the conflict."

New rules should be made to resolve this conflict of interest at the state level and at the federal level. When someone is in clear conflict than a policy should be adopted to resolve that conflict. This is especially important when it deals with the foundation of our democratic process, elections. Without elections we would not be a democracy and this cannot be tolerated.