2012 presidential election, montgomery county elections officials wanted to repeat the success they had running a relatively hassle free, trouble free election back in 2008. last december, the two democrats that you saw earlier, tom richie and dennis lieberman were joined by the two republicans on the board of elections in voting to expand early voting hours in montgomery county. they voted to do that in 2008 and they voted to do it again in 2012. they wanted to offer early voting this year in nights and weekends and it was a bipartisan vote in favor of it in montgomery county which runs counter to what has been happening across the rest of the state. as we have been reporting on the show, what is happening in ohio this year is a mess. the county elections boards are equally divided, two republicans and two democrats in every county. the republicans have been voting to expand early voting hours in ruppen leaning counties but they have been voting against it in democratic counties. and
let s open the polls and let the people vote. let them be heard. that was a rally at the ohio secretary of state s office today. it was in support of these two gentlemen you see framed here. tom richie, sr. on the left and dennis lieberman on the right. why were all these people in ohio rallying behind these two men today at the secretary of state s office? because ohio s republican secretary of state is threatening to fire them. tom richie and dennis lieberman may lose their jobs this week for the crime of voting to expand voting hours in their county. tom richie and dennis lieberman are the two democratic members of the montgomery county board of elections. month gomry county is a traditionally blue county in a sea of red counties in southwestern ohio, it s where the city of dayton is. dayton is famous not just for the dayton peace accords which
for instance, in the last election, 47% of ohioans cast ballots during nonbusiness hours. voters cast almost 200,000 ballots during the exact days and hours the republicans are eliminating this year. that s more than 3% in a state where elections get decided by 2% margin of victory. well, two democrats who voted for early hours, they have been suspended from the election board, supporters held a rally today for tom richie and senior dennis lieberman. well, secretary of state john husted ordered them to rescind their support for early voting. they refused. they ve got an attorney and they ll find out later this week if they re going to be able to keep their jobs. meanwhile, african-americans in ohio, i guess you could say, have been put on notice. the republican machine in your state, they just don t want you to vote. and they re going to make it really hard for you to do it. i m joined tonight by ohio state senator nina turner.
more opportunity to vote. the republican secretary of state, john husted, has now threatened to remove them from office. think about this, though. he didn t just say no to the proposal for weekend voting. he didn t threaten to take away the jobs of the republicans who also participated in that vote and voted the other way. he didn t just fix his directive about early voting hours to close the loophole about weekends so it would also apply to weekends and be standardized across the state. instead, he just told the democrats and i m quoting here, you leave me no choice but to begin the process necessary to remove you from the montgomery county board of elections. remove? they were hauled before a state hearing that will ultimately decide their fate or help to decide their fate. they were grilled by an attorney for the secretary of state s office. thomas richie and dennis lieberman were put in the weird position of having to defend themselves against the charge that they used their power
you do as a board member take an oath to follow the laws of the state of ohio. the united states constitution and the ohio constitution. and part of that is to follow the directives issued by the secretary of state, correct? correct, which i believe i did. and still to this day believe i followed that directive. that directive which did not have instructions about weekends. thanks to the ohio capitol blog which is really slept for providing the tape from that hearing today. thomas richie and dennis lieberman, both democrats who between them have more than 27 years of experience on their county elections board, they could be fired by the end of this week. for voting to expand voting hours for the residents of their county. they re going to be joining us live for the interview next. you know why i sell tools? tools are uncomplicated. nothing complicated about a pair of 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what s complicated? shipping. shipping s complicated. not really. with pri