Is this the Democrats' "briar patch" strategy

If I remember the old Uncle Remus story, the rabbit begged the fox not to throw him the briar patch, so the fox did just that and the rabbit got what he wanted. The briar patch was where the rabbit wanted to be.

Ohio Democrats have announced they will not appeal the appellate court ruling that allows Ohio's secretary of state Ken Blackwell to administer the provisional ballot system mandated by HAVA the way Ohio has always done. This overturned a district court ruling in favor of the Democrats that was at variance with most other state and federal court rulings on this matter in other states.

I suspect the Democrats expected to lose and now they have what they want. They can claim that Secretary Blackwell and his fellow Republicans who run the state government want to suppress the vote, especially the votes of African Americans. If they lose Ohio on November 2, they will go to court again and lay the blame on Blackwell and the Republicans. Even if they don't prevail in challenging the election they get another chance to drag Ken Blackwell through the mud.

Why all this concern about a secretary of state? Well, maybe because Ken Blackwell is an up and coming star of the GOP, maybe a future candidate for governor or senator. And he has to be stopped because, in case you haven't seen him on TV (I have and he comes across very well in that medium) Ken Blackwell is, well, Black - oops! African American. (But I couldn't resist making that play on words.)

With Bush threatening to carry twice the share of the African American vote that he got in 2000, the Democrats are worried. And if the GOP can get some more African Americans elected to state-wide and federal offices, the Democrats' electoral lock on the minority vote might be broken.

The quote below is from an editorial in Saturday's Cincinnati Enquirer, so it has been overtaken by announcement of the appeals court ruling; but it does a good job of describing the problem.

Fix 'provisional ballot' mess:
"The bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the agency formed by HAVA to interpet its provisions, backs up Blackwell's view that the federal law requires provisional ballots only in a voter's jurisdiction, which is to be determined by each state. Blackwell says jurisdiction means 'precinct.' Carr says it means 'county' - which means a voter in Colerain Township has the legal right to cast a ballot in Anderson Township. That's nuts. It invites chaos."
"The provisional-vote flap is part of a disturbing larger trend in which seemingly any attempt to reduce fraud by simply verifying voters' eligibility is met with the accusation that Republican officials are trying to suppress the minority vote."