the residents of their county 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 char
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. i stepped on the machine, and it showed me the pressure points
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.
that was thomas richie, sr., a democratic member of the montgomery county ohio board of elections. today, mr. richie along with the other democrat on that elections board, dennis lieberman, were both hauled before a state hearing and forced to that they should not be fired by ohio s republican secretary of state who is threatening to fire them. potentially fireable offense is that they voted to expand early voting hours in their county in ohio. joining us now for the interview are the two democratic members of the montgomery county ohio board of elections, dennis lieberman and thomas richie sr. mr. lieberman, mr. richie, thank you both for being here. i appreciate your time, gentlemen. thank you. mr. lieberman, let me start with you. how important was early voting on weekends in your county, in montgomery county, the last time around in the 2008 presidential race? it was exceptionally important. you know, i can give you some numbers, we had 28,000 people that voted early. of th
office. famous richie and dennis lieberman were put in the weird position of having to defend themselves against the charge that they used their power to avote to allow people more time to vote. 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 for providing the tape from the 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. ic e