Due to a quirk in the state's election laws, for a brief period Ohio residents were able to register and vote at the same time. This by itself had Republicans angry, but what happened during that period now has some even angrier.

Groups looking to register new voters, and to get-out-the-vote, took advantage of this window and killed two birds with one stone. One group in particular focused on a group of people that might not normally be expected to turn out. From the New York Post:

Volunteers supporting Barack Obama picked up hundreds of people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and drug-rehab centers and drove them to a polling place yesterday on the last day that Ohioans could register and vote on the same day, almost no questions asked.

Some bloggers on the right, having read the Post's article, are crying voter fraud. Obviously, there are some class issues in play here, and most bloggers who responded to the story focused on the homeless angle -- not surprising, given the headline, "HOMELESS 'DRIVEN' TO VOTE OBAMA."

RedState's Pejman Yousefzadeh, however, had a slightly different complaint -- he noted that the Post's report quotes a convicted felon who was driven to a polling place as part of the effort. In a post titled "Tell Me Again How Voter Fraud Doesn't Exist..." Yousefzadeh wrote:

Because this story would beg to differ. Note that you are not supposed to be able to vote with a felony conviction.

Voter fraud regularly gets denied by our friends on the other side of the partisan divide. If they open their eyes, they will see that it is all around them... If there was any justice in the world, every media establishment would be flooding into Ohio asking just what kind of shoddy oversight was allowing convicted felons to register to vote.

(His emphasis.)

There's just one problem with Yousefzadeh's argument -- the entire thing is based on a false assumption. In fact, if he had just paid closer attention to the Post article, he would have seen that felons who've served their time are now allowed to vote in Ohio. And that, again, leaves him with an argument that seems to be based just on class.

― Alex Koppelman

I thought you guys said that middle class Americans were dying to vote for him?

Sgt_ROCK:

I thought you guys said that middle class Americans were dying to vote for him?

After Bush finishes destroying the middle class, it won't exist anymore anyway.

since we all just bought them free houses

:-)

these people were the middle class.

How come you are always telling us what "you thought" we guys "said"?

Ohio is ahead of many states in this regard, and there is no reason why the poor, homeless, or those who've served their time shouldn't vote. NO reason. This is indeed a partisan and class bias of Republicans and the Right.

One homeless guy I heard interviewed said he was voting for McCain, in fact. And while I didn't necessarily agree with his choice, I will defend that man's right to cast his vote, homeless or not. He's entitled to that, dammit...

Republicans are class-warfare advocates who don't think the poor or disadvantaged should vote. Trust the "Sarge" to prove it for us...

They sure were. And they'll have a lot of company from former members of the middle class whose lives were destroyed by the current collapse.

"Sarge" loves to imagine that he knows what others are saying and thinking, as you know. All part of his credo - if you can't PROVE it, then MAKE IT UP...:)

And I'm sure lots of drug addicts voted for McCain out to show their support for Cindy.

Actually, it says a lot that it is blindly assumed the least fortunate among us would vote against the party in power.