While looking for the copy of that testimony, I came across this disturbing article from yesterday's NYT. The last couple of paragraphs talk about what's been going on in PA. As a Pittsburgh native, I can tell you that in any other election year, folks would have just ignored this crap as worthless. But remember, the Gov Randall just extended the deadline for absentee ballots, so I can see some folks falling for this:
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 28 - Ohio was a confusing patchwork of litigation and election board hearings on Thursday as Democratic and Republican lawyers waged courtroom battles from Cincinnati to Newark, N.J., over the rights of tens of thousands of Ohioans to cast ballots next week.
At the heart of the legal jousting was an effort by the state Republican Party to challenge 23,000 new voter registrations in 62 counties. On Wednesday, Judge Susan J. Dlott of Federal District Court in Cincinnati temporarily blocked hearings for those challenges in six counties, including the state's two largest, Cuyahoga and Franklin.
But on Thursday, Attorney General Jim Petro, a Republican, and the Franklin County Board of Elections appealed Judge Dlott's order, seeking to proceed with hearings on Friday and through the weekend.
Election officials in Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland and where 17,000 challenges have been filed, said they might have run out of time to hold hearings. But officials in Franklin County, which includes Columbus, said they might proceed with hearings on Sunday if their appeal succeeds. Many smaller counties were also proceeding with plans for hearings.
Several counties that were not covered by Judge Dlott's order held hearings on Thursday.
The Republicans brought challenges last week against 35,000 voters after letters sent to them by the party or election officials were returned as undeliverable - evidence, the Republicans said, of possible fraud. About 12,000 of the challenges have been dismissed or withdrawn.
Democrats have argued that most challenges were against legal voters, including some in the military.
In Akron on Thursday, Summit County election officials dismissed all 976 challenges and gave those voters immunity from challenge on Election Day as well. Even Republican members of the county election board were critical of the state party after an angry hearing.
"The state party made us look bad," said Alex Arshinkoff, the county Republican chairman and one of two Republican members of the board of elections. He said the party's failure to provide evidence had allowed the Democrats to shift the burden of proof to the challengers instead of the challenged.
"This was a slow pitch over home plate, a T-ball," he said.
But in Greene County in the state's southwest, a hearing resulted in dozens of challenges being upheld. About 20 of those challenges were against students attending two historically black colleges, Wilberforce University and Central State University. Officials at the two colleges said that while several of the challenges were dismissed, most were upheld.
In Franklin County, a challenge hearing scheduled for Thursday was canceled because of Judge Dlott's order. But about 100 people showed up anyway, bringing documents to bolster their claims of residency. Election officials copied the documents and said they planned to dismiss the challenges against those people.
In addition to petitioning the election boards, Republicans are planning to put monitors at polling sites, mainly in heavily Democratic urban areas, to challenge some people when they show up to vote.
On Thursday, Judge Dlott heard testimony in a case brought by two residents contending that the Republicans' plans to challenge voters on Election Day in Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, were racially discriminatory. Judge Dlott is expected to rule on Friday.
And in federal court in Newark, N.J., a Democratic voter from Ohio asserted that the Republican efforts to challenge registrants violated a 1982 agreement. That agreement was intended to prohibit Republicans from using so-called "ballot security activities" that focus on largely black or Hispanic communities.
The motion was filed in Newark because the federal court there has jurisdiction over the 1982 agreement. Republican Party officials said they believed the consent agreement applied only to the Republican National Committee and did not cover actions by the Ohio state party.
"The Democrats and their lawyers have established a clear pattern, filing over 40 lawsuits nationwide to try and change the rules in ways that would make it easier for registration fraud to become vote fraud," said Jim ****, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
During the hearing in Akron, a Democratic board member, Russell Pry, asked a Republican volunteer whether she knew a voter she was challenging or had been to the voter's home.
The volunteer, Barbara Miller, said that she had not. She said someone from the state Republican Party had told her to challenge the voter and several hundred others.Mr. Pry warned that because Ms. Miller had no direct evidence, she could be prosecuted for election falsification. She refused to answer more questions, citing the Fifth Amendment guarantee against self-incrimination.
With concerns rising nationwide about confusion and intimidation at polling places, the Justice Department said on Thursday that it would send 1,090 poll watchers to 25 states.
There were also complaints about possible dirty tricks in some precincts. In Pennsylvania's Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, the police and the district attorney's office were investigating a letter telling voters that the state had extended voting to Wednesday, Nov. 3.
The letter, written on fake Republican Party letterhead, instructed Republicans to vote on Tuesday and Democrats on Wednesday.
The authorities were also investigating reports from students on campuses in Allegheny and in Indiana County, northeast of Pittsburgh, who said their party registrations had been fraudulently switched to Republican after they signed what they had been told were petitions to legalize the medical use of marijuana. In some cases, their addresses were changed, resulting in a new polling place.
James Dao reported from Columbus for this article, and Ford Fessenden from Akron. Kate Zernike contributed reporting from Philadelphia.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 28 - Ohio was a confusing patchwork of litigation and election board hearings on Thursday as Democratic and Republican lawyers waged courtroom battles from Cincinnati to Newark, N.J., over the rights of tens of thousands of Ohioans to cast ballots next week.
At the heart of the legal jousting was an effort by the state Republican Party to challenge 23,000 new voter registrations in 62 counties. On Wednesday, Judge Susan J. Dlott of Federal District Court in Cincinnati temporarily blocked hearings for those challenges in six counties, including the state's two largest, Cuyahoga and Franklin.
But on Thursday, Attorney General Jim Petro, a Republican, and the Franklin County Board of Elections appealed Judge Dlott's order, seeking to proceed with hearings on Friday and through the weekend.
Election officials in Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland and where 17,000 challenges have been filed, said they might have run out of time to hold hearings. But officials in Franklin County, which includes Columbus, said they might proceed with hearings on Sunday if their appeal succeeds. Many smaller counties were also proceeding with plans for hearings.
Several counties that were not covered by Judge Dlott's order held hearings on Thursday.
The Republicans brought challenges last week against 35,000 voters after letters sent to them by the party or election officials were returned as undeliverable - evidence, the Republicans said, of possible fraud. About 12,000 of the challenges have been dismissed or withdrawn.
Democrats have argued that most challenges were against legal voters, including some in the military.
In Akron on Thursday, Summit County election officials dismissed all 976 challenges and gave those voters immunity from challenge on Election Day as well. Even Republican members of the county election board were critical of the state party after an angry hearing.
"The state party made us look bad," said Alex Arshinkoff, the county Republican chairman and one of two Republican members of the board of elections. He said the party's failure to provide evidence had allowed the Democrats to shift the burden of proof to the challengers instead of the challenged.
"This was a slow pitch over home plate, a T-ball," he said.
But in Greene County in the state's southwest, a hearing resulted in dozens of challenges being upheld. About 20 of those challenges were against students attending two historically black colleges, Wilberforce University and Central State University. Officials at the two colleges said that while several of the challenges were dismissed, most were upheld.
In Franklin County, a challenge hearing scheduled for Thursday was canceled because of Judge Dlott's order. But about 100 people showed up anyway, bringing documents to bolster their claims of residency. Election officials copied the documents and said they planned to dismiss the challenges against those people.
In addition to petitioning the election boards, Republicans are planning to put monitors at polling sites, mainly in heavily Democratic urban areas, to challenge some people when they show up to vote.
On Thursday, Judge Dlott heard testimony in a case brought by two residents contending that the Republicans' plans to challenge voters on Election Day in Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, were racially discriminatory. Judge Dlott is expected to rule on Friday.
And in federal court in Newark, N.J., a Democratic voter from Ohio asserted that the Republican efforts to challenge registrants violated a 1982 agreement. That agreement was intended to prohibit Republicans from using so-called "ballot security activities" that focus on largely black or Hispanic communities.
The motion was filed in Newark because the federal court there has jurisdiction over the 1982 agreement. Republican Party officials said they believed the consent agreement applied only to the Republican National Committee and did not cover actions by the Ohio state party.
"The Democrats and their lawyers have established a clear pattern, filing over 40 lawsuits nationwide to try and change the rules in ways that would make it easier for registration fraud to become vote fraud," said Jim ****, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
During the hearing in Akron, a Democratic board member, Russell Pry, asked a Republican volunteer whether she knew a voter she was challenging or had been to the voter's home.
The volunteer, Barbara Miller, said that she had not. She said someone from the state Republican Party had told her to challenge the voter and several hundred others.Mr. Pry warned that because Ms. Miller had no direct evidence, she could be prosecuted for election falsification. She refused to answer more questions, citing the Fifth Amendment guarantee against self-incrimination.
With concerns rising nationwide about confusion and intimidation at polling places, the Justice Department said on Thursday that it would send 1,090 poll watchers to 25 states.
There were also complaints about possible dirty tricks in some precincts. In Pennsylvania's Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, the police and the district attorney's office were investigating a letter telling voters that the state had extended voting to Wednesday, Nov. 3.
The letter, written on fake Republican Party letterhead, instructed Republicans to vote on Tuesday and Democrats on Wednesday.
The authorities were also investigating reports from students on campuses in Allegheny and in Indiana County, northeast of Pittsburgh, who said their party registrations had been fraudulently switched to Republican after they signed what they had been told were petitions to legalize the medical use of marijuana. In some cases, their addresses were changed, resulting in a new polling place.
James Dao reported from Columbus for this article, and Ford Fessenden from Akron. Kate Zernike contributed reporting from Philadelphia.
That's how crazy this election is. She's giving her the scare tactics about lawsuits and how her favorite doctors will leave the profession because they can't afford the insurance due to people like John Edwards. My grandma loves her doctor and she was considering switching to Bush. That is until I reminded her of what W has done to the state of public education in this country. 
