Another Summit elections board deadlock?

The Summit County  Board of Elections meeting on Tuesday could  provide one more chapter in the ongoing Theater of the Absurd for the early voting issue.  The 6th Circuit  Court of Appeals in Cincinnati set the stage for more pratfalls by the GOP contingent on the board when it  said that although early voting was OK, it was up to the local boards to decide whether they wanted to open their doors the week end before the election.

Given the state-leading deadlocks on the Summit Board, the appellate ruling  could very well provide the two  Republican members with just the excuse it wanted to block minorities from casting early ballots during that final critical  weekend.  A 2-2  tie would thrust the issue into the lap of the very person who created the problem in the first place, the Caesar-like Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted.

When Wayne Jones, a Democrat, recently called for a vote on the extended week end hours, Republican Ray Weber, County Republican boss Alex Arshinkoff's surrogate, walked away from the table, saying there was no quorum to vote on it in the absence of Arshinkoff, who is recovering from injuries sustained in an auto accident.

There's no certainty that Arshinkoff is well enough to return to the board on Tuesday, so Weber may again deliver the dagger to the Democrat's proposal.

Isn't  this fun?  Trouble is, folks, now that the Republicans'  guardians of democracy can no longer malinger in their insistence on wiping out fraud where none exists, they are hanging over the cliff with other con jobs  to win the presidential election.

C'mon, you vote purifiers.   I've played enough poker to know when somebody is bluffing to win the big pot.  Considering the guys sitting around the poker table  in my hometown, you fellows are no more than troublesome amateurs.

If it's election time, it's Bob Smith time

IF THERE is another mayoral election in Akron, it means that Bob Smith is back in town. Smith has been tormenting the Plusquellic administration for too many years with fishing expeditions to embarrass the six-term mayor. Many of the Hudson businessman's requests have involved his demands for repeated deep searches into records by the city law department. They are costly and time consuming and have yet to yield whatever it is that Smith is trying to find.

I see that his name popped up again at a meeting of the Summit County Elections Board over an email that Smith sent to a Republican board member that was again fishing for any sort of damning information about the mayor's campaign finances. You may expect more of this from Smith right up to election day. z-z-z-z-z