Columbus activists claim the Franklin County Board of Elections sat on usable voting machines on election day, causing the amusement park-like lines around town.

Never mind the fact that the number of machines not in service was the oh-so-staggering figure of 68, which I very much doubt would have made an appreciable difference in ANYONE’s voting time around town, unless of course all 68 were put in one precinct. The principle in question is nevertheless sound — why weren’t all of Franklin County’s resources deployed? If you had extra voting machines that appeared useable, why not put them in service?

I also think Fitrakis (a former classmate — he was two years behind me at OSU, as I recall, though I think he’s quite a bit older) is off the mark quite a bit when he claims this was a devious campaign against the “Democratic city of Columbus, with its Democratic mayor and uniformly Democratic city council”. I’m as surprised at the results from election day as anyone else on the Left, but come on. Sixty-eight idle machines do not an election break. (“Voting early and often“, however…)

[link via People Have the Power — a new Columbus-centric news and activism blog from the donewaiting crew. Nice!]