Voting drive at bar cut off by Ohio law Obama fans’ plan, to let patrons in free for registering, called illegal enticement Tuesday, October 7, 2008 3:07 AM By Barbara Carmen THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH DispatchPolitics
You can Barack the Vote, but you can’t buy it.
That’s what some overly enthusiastic college kids learned when they approached a manager of the Mynt bar, 445 N. High St., to host a voter-registration drive.
Fliers promoting the drive, to have taken place last Saturday, said: “Open Bar. Free Entry when you register to vote or if you are already registered.”
Mynt charges a $5 cover. The flier said an open bar would be offered from 9 to 11 p.m.
“These guys thought they were just doing something good,” manager Josh Mynes said. He didn’t remember their names.
The fliers promised “staff from the Ohio Obama Campaign” would be on hand to complete registration paperwork and check names of those already registered.
But the party was over before it began.
The Obama campaign wasn’t behind the event, a spokesman said, and it called the bar to ask that the event be called off because it would violate Ohio law, which forbids providing anything of value to entice registration or voting.
“While we appreciated the enthusiasm of the club promoter who was going to sponsor this event, we refused to participate,” said Isaac Baker, Ohio communication director for the Democratic presidential nominee.
County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, a Republican, also sent the bar an advisory. “Dear Mr. Mynes,” O’Brien wrote last week. “This office seeks to educate persons or businesses regarding the provisions of (the) law in advance of promotions similar to this one in hope of avoiding unintentional violation of election law.”
In 1993, The Limited supposedly offered free lunches to employees who agreed to vote in the spring election. That ballot included a rezoning issue to allow Tuttle Mall. A former prosecutor opted not to charge any of the 1,700 employees who might have chowed down: He said there were just too many.
Other local groups with a stated interest in an election’s outcome also have been chided for offering incentives such as free babysitting or rides to the polls.
Mynes canceled the event, saying it wasn’t worth it: “It got blown out of proportion.”
Goes to show the civics education gap we have in this country.
The most illiterate, (apparently) is Oblahblah himself.