Actually, it’s a November surprise: Just this morning, thanks to the determination of some true Republicans, Ohio’s court of appeals voted two to one (2 Repubs, 1 Dem) to allow “challengers” to challenge whether voters in Ohio are truly registered voters. Sounds like good news for the goons, no?

No. In fact, it was the stupidest thing they’ve ever done and a final gift to Kerry. Since the challengers were targetting polling places in Ohio’s black neighborhoods, this news hit the local population like lightning. It was a return to Jim Crow, it was legislated intimidation and supression, and they weren’t going to let it silence them. Nothing could possibly have made them more excited and determined to vote, and nothing could have turned them more strongly against the Grand Old Party.

Jesse Taylor, working at the polls in Ohio, gets it just right.

The Republican voter challenger debacle, alongside the Milwaukee and South Carolina flyers, may be the worst conservative strategic blunder of any election in recent memory. From my precinct (an admittedly small sample), a lot of people feel like they’re back in the 60s, fighting against a tyrannical and prejudiced power trying to keep them from exercising their constitutional rights. I’ll be surprised if Bush matches his eight percent of the black vote from 2000.

Read his description of what it’s like there. It’s clear that minorities and lower-income voters have never before been so determined to vote, thanks to the Republicans attempt to discourage them. Talk about a strategy backfiring….