Is Ken Blackwell engaging in a little pay-to-play action with the Ohio Department of Transportation and contractors?  The Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate has invited more than 600 people, including contractors, to a "transporation summit" featuring the Director of ODOT as a special guest, with the expressed purpose of outlining his transporation policy beliefs.  Democrats say the event is inappropriate.

Oh, there's definitely more inside.

Bill Faith of COHHIO referenced a study from Cleveland State University that showed how many registered voters might have to vote a provisional ballot because their license ID might have an old address on it.  Legally, it should still be proper ID to vote, but because it doesn't match the poll book address, there is bound to be confusion.  To illustrate how many voters could be affected by this, he asked those at the news conference whose valid license has an old address on it.  Eight out of the thirty in the room raised their hands.

With current press attention focused on Blackwell's stringent rules on registering voters for the 2006 election, now appears a rehash of the controversy over the 2004 election.

Since the publication of Robert Kennedy Jr.'s article -- "Was The 2004 Election Stolen?" -- in the recent edition of Rolling Stone Magazine, Blackwell continues to be a subject of interest in that controversy.

In a Columbus Dispatch commentary last Sunday, Joe Hallett says, "Echoing an editorial in the New York Times, Fisher, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, called upon Blackwell to relinquish his Nov. 7 Election-oversight duties."  Hallett, however, does not support Kennedy's conclusions about the election being stolen and does not believe that Blackwell was "chief villain."  

The recent behavior of Secretary of State Blackwell in making extreme regulations that could inflict criminal penalties on those involved in voter registration could bring to a halt voter registration drives in Ohio.  Blackwell, who is also the Republican candidate for governor, and famous for his voter suppression tactics in the 2004 election, has caught the attention of the New York Times (June 7, 2006, editorial), which states that, "If there was ever a sign of a ruling party in trouble, it is a game plan that calls for trying to win by discouraging voting."

Monday's hearing of the Joint Committee on Agency Rules and Regulations, announcing Blackwell's new rules to comply with the election "reform" law passed late last year, Sub. HB 3, brought out Common Cause/Ohio as well as the Ohio League of Women Voters, ACORN, the Ohio Democratic Party and others to testify. Samuel Gresham of CC/Ohio conveyed the sentiments of many, that Blackwell's actions "are intended to suppress Democratic voter turnout in what is shaping up as a closely contested governor's race..."

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is no stranger to controversy - he's perhaps best known for his 2004 edict on paper weight for voter registration forms, of course.

Now he's back in the middle of a hailstorm of angry words from Ohio reform groups, who say that Blackwell has implemented rules for a voter registration law that are stricter than the law itself.  For example:

For some angry and frustrated quotes from Ohio reform activists, click "Read More."