By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) (pictured), a Warrensville Hts. Democrat, sent a formal written request to Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted  (pictured) last week seeking the number of registered voters, organized by county, who have been removed or purged from Ohio voter rolls since 2008.

The letter comes as Democratic President Barack Obama is in a neck and neck race with Mitt Romney, the nominee for the Republican party and a former governor of Massachusetts.

Ohio is a battleground state and prominent Republicans and Democrats that have a stake in the presidential election are not sitting on the side lines.

“The purging of voter rolls is yet another attack on the right of Americans to select their leadership and representatives in the local, state and federal houses of our nation,” said  Fudge.  “As we move closer to the observance of Independence Day, it is critically important that we continue to ensure that every eligible American continues to enjoy the freedoms that led to the founding of this great country, and for which so many lost their lives.”

Fudge's aggression on the issue is in conjunction with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), a federal law enacted by Congress to help ensure that accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained.

States are required to perform general voter record maintenance due to NVRA.

Husted's office issued instructions to the election boards on April 18 on how to conduct the general voter records maintenance program as required by law. But  Fudge said last week that the information was not maintained by the secretary’s office or readily available in its entirety.

The congresswoman's letter to Husted also asks that he comply with her request for exposure of those purged from voter rolls in Ohio by Oct. 9, the last day of registration before the November general election.

The removal of voters from rolls without adequate safeguards to ensure accuracy has become the norm in so many states from coast to coast, say Democrats like Fudge, Ohio's only Black congressperson.

Fudge is a fighter and data show that Obama likely needs her help to win reelection.  Her largely Black 11 th congressional district includes parts of the majority Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland and a Black pocket of Akron, Oh., a city some 35 miles south of Cleveland.

Though a federal legislator charged with making federal law as a member of Congress, Fudge has taken on state legislators and statewide office holders like Husted.

She voiced opposition to unsuccessful attempts by the mostly Republican Ohio state legislature to pass laws before this year's election to silence the Black and poor vote with more stringent voting requirements including slashing the time period for early voting.

A former speaker of the Ohio House, Husted won election to secretary of state in 2010 as part of a Republican sweep of statewide offices that include, among others, Democratic give ups of the attorney general's office,  and governor, an office previously held by the Democrat Ted Strickland, and now by John Kasich.

Both Kasich and Strickland are  former U.S. Reps. from Ohio.

Reach Cleveland Urban News. Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by telephone at 216-932-3114.

, By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com

MIAMI, Florida-Two years after leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join James Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami amid a spat with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who is now part owner of the Horseshoe Casino, LeBron James (pictured) led the Miami Heat last night  to its second NBA championship with the Heat beating the Oklahoma City Thunder121-106 in the fifth game of the series finals.

“It’s about damn time,” said James after receiving his most valuable player trophy.

James, 27, scored 26 points Thurs. night  coupled with 13 assists and 11 rebounds.

The Heat lost the first game of the series but then won four in a roll to take the world basketball title. And James got the championship ring that he promised to get when he left Cleveland and angered many of his then adorable fans.

An Akron, Oh. native, James was drafted out of high school in the first round and played seven years with the Cavaliers before switching to the Miami Heat.

His departure became so controversial that at one point Civil Rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. stepped in and urged Gilbert to tone down his criticism of James, who accused the Cavaliers owner of disrespecting him as a Black man.

Not all Clevelanders are angry at the mega star.

"I support LeBron James and we wanted him to win that NBA championship ring," said Art McKoy, an East Cleveland, Oh. community activist.

Reach Cleveland Urban News. Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by telephone at 216-932-3114.

Editorial by Johnette Jernigan, Cleveland Urban News.Com Reporter

As battle grounds are drawn here in the state of Ohio and voter turnout is anticipated to be high in a neck and neck race between President Barack Obama and republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, it is important to not only register new voters, but to also give disenfranchised voters accurate information on the right to vote.

Former offenders could be taking themselves out of the political process inadvertently due to misinformation. Knowledge is no doubt power, particularly when it pertains to voting in a close election.

Ohio is one of 13 states along with the District of Columbia that allows convicted felons to vote under state law, but if a  jail or prison term is part of the sentence, that right to vote in Ohio comes only after the completion of it.

The right to vote is a Civil Right and the denial of it because of a felony is  called felony voter disenfranchisement. Only Kentucky and West Virginia take it to the maximum and  have state laws that impose a life long disbarment of that right for a felony record, with even Kentucky now providing for a restoration process.

Once a a person convicted of a felony is released from physical incarceration, even if on post-release control, parole, on house-arrest or to a half-way house,  the eligibility to vote in Ohio kicks in, though felons must again register to vote in order to do so.

Any Ohioan being held in jail in a pretrial situation who wishes to exercise his or her right to vote can do so by absentee ballot, unless that person is incarcerated because of an unrelated felony conviction and will not be released before the upcoming election.

Two separate convictions of felony violations of Ohio’s election laws bars the offender from voting in Ohio in any manner under state law, the only exception to the right of felons to vote, except, as mentioned previously, while the felony offender is incarcerated.

Ohio voters must be 18-years of age,  a U.S. citizen, and a resident of the Ohio at least 30 days before the election at issue. And absent a stipulation by a probate court of incompetency to vote in a judicial order, mentally incompetent people that otherwise qualify retain the right to vote, at least in Ohio.

A pivotal state that determines presidents, Ohio has a stake in this year's presidential election. It is therefore important, and without reservation, that Ohioans have their voices heard through the power of the right to vote.

Reach Johnette Jernigan at jernj@aol.com.

Reach Cleveland Urban News. Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by telephone at 216-932-3114.

LOS ANGELES, California-Rodney King (pictured), whose 1991 brutal and videotaped beating by a group of White Los Angeles policemen generated a week of costly riots that killed 55 people and heightened racial tensions across the country after a predominantly White jury acquitted the officers was found dead Sun. afternoon in his swimming pool in a home he shared with his fiancee in Rialto, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb. (Watch the video of the beating at www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) .

He was 47, and there was no evidence of foul play,  police said.

Famous for going off script from his lawyers and saying "can we all get along?" at a press conference calling for peace around the riots, King publicly admitted that he had alcohol and drug abuse problems.