A US House subcommittee Tuesday voted to issue a subpoena for former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. To prepare for this November's general elections the subcommittee on Civil Rights is investigating.
In 2004 Blackwell was Ohio's top election official. Many Democrats have said there were voting irregularities throughout the state on election day. Blackwell has refused to testify before the committee in the past, so Democrats on the committee decided to authorize the chairman to subpoena him. Urbana Republican Congressman Jim Jordan says it was a political vote.
Look, ken Blackwell was Secretary of State for eight years. Republicans did well in 2002, 2004, but we didn't do well in 2006. If he was orchestrating some grand conspiracy, as some Democrats suggest, why the heck did he do it when he was at the top of the ticket running for governor, Jordan said.
The vote authorized the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, to subpoena Blackwell. Conyers says if Blackwell agrees to testify he won't need to use the subpoena.