04 Mar 2008 01:24 pm
Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic.com
Ohio's Secretary of State, an office held by a Democrat, has rebuked Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for trying to staff precincts with poll workers who presented insufficient credentials.
Obama's campaign calls this charge "wrong."
In a memo sent late this morning to county election directors by David M. Farrell, Ohio's
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, a letter carried by Obama supporters -- signed by Obama state director Paul Tewes -- is deemed "not legally sufficient on its own to allow someone to gain access to polling places."
Farrell notes that state law requires that polling observers must be "duly appointed" and have been previously issued a certificate.
The letter from Tewes states the bearer 'is hereby authorized to serve as a legal poll monitor on behalf of the Obama campaign."
The alleged infraction seems minor, but the Clinton campaign has seized on the e-mail from the Secretary of State's office as evidence that the Obama campaign is trying to game the system in Ohio.
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