OHIO Edwards: Ruling won't hurt election

The law says voters must vote at their correct polling place.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- John Edwards began the week before the election by assuring churchgoers in Ohio on Sunday that a record turnout would render meaningless a court ruling limiting where some votes can be cast.
Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, started a bus tour of one of the states deemed crucial in the Nov. 2 election by attending worship at the Allen Temple AME Church.
The Rev. Donald Jordan Sr. introduced Edwards to the predominantly black congregation as a man who is "eventually going to be president of the United States."
Edwards took the opportunity to weigh in on Saturday's ruling by the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld Ohio's law on provisional votes -- the first such ruling in the nation. Those votes are cast by voters whose names do not appear on records at the polling place.
The law states that voters must cast votes at their correct polling place, not at any polling place in their home county, as Democrats had argued. Ohio Democrats have declined to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We know that there are some voices that would stand in the way of your voices being heard -- stand in the way here in Ohio of you being able to vote," Edwards told the congregation. "We're going to make sure you get to the polls, we're going to make sure you get to vote and we're going to make sure your vote is counted and we're going to counter those forces with a record turnout."
Will work at polls
Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Myron Marlin said the Democrats will have workers at the polls on Election Day to ensure voters have gone to the proper precinct.
Kevin Madden, a spokesman for President Bush's campaign in Ohio, said Republicans back the appeals court's ruling.
"Our goal is to protect the integrity of Ohio's electoral process," Madden said Sunday. "We want to make sure voters are not disenfranchised by registration fraud."
Edwards, who also visited Dayton and Lima in his second trip to Ohio in a week, contrasted President Bush's record on employment with that of former President Clinton. Ohio has lost more than 230,000 jobs since Bush took office.
"When he [Clinton] was president of the United States, we weren't losing jobs, we were creating jobs," Edwards said.
Rosa Lynne Jason, 40, of Cincinnati, a second-grade teacher in the affluent Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill, said she thought Bush had not done a good job of reaching out to black or Hispanic communities. She worries about what the war in Iraq will mean to her 8-year-old daughter's future.
"I'm just concerned about the world she will grow up in," Jason said. "I feel we need a change."
In Dayton, Edwards reacted to comments Bush made Saturday that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was suffering from "election amnesia" with conflicting stands on Iraq.
"This president is hoping and praying this country has amnesia for what he's done the past four years," Edwards said.
Edwards also called this "the most important election of our lifetime" and said Bush needed to clarify his position on a report that a plan to privatize Social Security would raise the retirement age from 67 to 72.
"The American people deserve to know from George Bush now, not after the election, does he want to privatize Social Security, does he want to raise the retirement age and how's he going to pay the trillions of dollars in costs?"
At the Lima rally, Edwards responded to Bush's remarks on a Fox News Channel program over the weekend that the country will always be vulnerable to the threat of another terrorist attack.
"The reason George Bush thinks those things is because he hasn't done everything that needs to be done to keep this country safe," Edwards said, citing Bush's failure to adopt all of the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission and the growing nuclear threat from Iran and North Korea.
"Our message to the American people is we will keep you safe," Edwards said.
A handful of protesters stood outside the Lima rally. Three were wearing dolphin costumes and two were holding Bush-Cheney signs.
Polls show the race between Bush and Kerry in Ohio is too close to call.