FUCK JOHN MCCAIN

Ah, so this is the "change" and "reform" that McCain says he stands for -- dirty tricks to disenfranchise voters.

According to this story in the Cincinnati Enquirer (an extremely Republican-leaning paper, BTW), John McCain's campaign sent out one million forms to the public on which a voter could request an absentee ballot.

However, the form included an unnecessary box asking if the voter was eligible to vote. And amazingly, under Ohio law, if the voter didn't notice the box and didn't check it, that voter is deemed to be admitting that he or she is not eligible to vote, and the application has to be rejected by law. More than 750 absentee ballot requests have already been invalidated as a result.

This is, of course, just another example of the tricks that Republicans have played in Ohio in the past. In 2004, a still-unidentified group sent out a large robo-call telling voters -- "Don't forget! Republicans vote on Tuesday, and Democrats vote on Wednesday."

Also, in 2004, then-Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (Republican) changed the state's rules as to voter identification and provisional ballots just weeks before the election. Those rule changes had the effect of confusing and disenfranchising a large number of poorer, and largely minority, voters in Ohio.

And, of course, who can forget how many Democratic-leaning areas in Ohio (particularly college towns) were given far too few ballot machines in 2004, causing lines that went on for hours and hours -- and causing many people to have to choose between voting and missing work (and often choosing to keep their jobs instead of voting).

Wake up, America. You may not agree with everything the Democratic Party stands for, but you can't possibly agree with the anti-democratic tactics of the Republican Party. You all like to talk about how America is the "greatest country in the world". Well, is this something that the greatest country in the world would do?