Cleveland, Ohio 10/02/2012

On a rainy evening in Cuyahoga County citizens gathered with their state and federal senators to camp out for the night before the first day of early voting in Ohio.

Sponsored by state Senator Turner, Sleep Out the Vote was attended by US Senator Sherrod Brown, Cleveland Mayor Jackson, and candidates for local offices, Democrats all. As crowds cheered, each candidate took to the proverbial soapbox and delivered a raucous call to get out the vote in support of President Obama and a "fair playing field". No one more rousing than Turner.

Upstaging even Sen. Brown with her impassioned vow not to let "some backwards Republicans stop us from exercising our right to vote!" the crowd's growing passion was palpable. Brown joked about his misfortune having to follow such a gifted orator. However, this did not prevent him from delivering his own sermon on the need to support the continued efforts of the Democrats on education, health care, and jobs, which drew an impromptu chant of "six more years" from the less than independent audience.

As the night wore on, the rain increased, and the group decreased, but Sen Turner and the faithful stayed the night, making their stand for democracy and voting rights regardless the conditions.

When asked about the incongruous positions between the Republicans and Democrats on early voting in Ohio, Turner jumped at the opportunity to lay out the facts. "In the rural areas they didn't try and stop early voting, just in the urban areas, where blacks and university students, people who voted heavily for Obama last time, live. This happens at the Board of Elections level. There's two Democrats and two Republicans, by law, and ties are broken by the Republican Secretary of State. She said she voted against early voting because of the tax costs. But there is a cost to denying voting, we have a moral and legal obligation."

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