Posted on 10/18/2008 9:55:04 AM PDT by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!
People line up to go to the Lorain County Board of Elections during a voter registration drive earlier this month.Having lost before the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit involving the verification of new voter registrations, Republicans now are turning to the Ohio Supreme Court.
David Myhal, a Republican from New Albany, filed a lawsuit this afternoon asking the state's highest court to issue an order related to instances when new voter information doesn't match records in state or federal databases.
Specifically, the lawsuit asks the Ohio Supreme Court to require Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to order county elections boards not to count any absentee ballot from voters registered after Jan. 1 without first checking the statewide voter registration database to ensure there is no mismatch.
If there is a mismatch, the boards would be required to determine whether the person is an eligible voter.
"This action seeks this (Ohio Supreme Court's) urgent intervention to remedy the secretary of state's steadfast refusal to fully implement the Statewide Voter Registration Database (SWVRD) in a manner required by both federal and state law -- in essence, to share 'mismatch' information regarding a registrant's driver's license or Social Security information with county boards of elections in a manner that gives those boards a meaningful opportunity to investigate the mismatches," the lawsuit says.
The court ordered that arguments by both sides must be filed by next Friday, only 10 days before the Nov. 4 election.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brunner this morning, overturning a lower-court order that she provide to county elections boards by today details of discrepancies discovered with new voter registrations.
In a 9-0 ruling, the court did not decide whether Brunner was violating federal law by not providing the information, as the Ohio Republican Party contended in its lawsuit.
Rather, the court said it was unlikely that as a private entity, the GOP had the legal authority to sue Brunner on the issue or that the lower court had the power to issue its order in this case.
Justice John Paul Stevens initially reviewed the case but referred the matter for the entire court to decide.
The ruling had at least temporarily settled a dispute that had worked its way through the lower federal courts in recent days, with district and appellate judges taking different sides on the issue.
Brunner, a first-term Democrat, has argued that Republicans were trying to force her to create a list of voters who could be forced to cast a provisional ballot, which is held for 10 days to determine eligibility and that she said is "subject to partisan wrangling and legal fights."
"Now that the nation's highest court has ruled in favor of Ohio voters, I encourage everyone to support the bipartisan system of elections administration in our state," Brunner said. "I ask all involved to stop the legal maneuvers that unnecessarily shake public confidence."
But the Ohio GOP called on Brunner to provide clear instructions to election administrators on how to handle questionable voter registration forms and accused her of "actively working to conceal fraudulent activity in this election."
"This decision was made on a technicality, not on the merits of the case," state Republican Chairman Robert T. Bennett said. "The justices did not disagree with our argument that Jennifer Brunner has failed to comply with federal election law. They merely said we don't have a right to bring a private challenge against her under this particular provision."
The dispute involves what should be done when personal information from newly registered voters doesn't match state motor vehicle and federal Social Security records after an automatic computer check is done.
The Republican Party had sued Brunner on grounds she allegedly was violating the federal Help America Vote Act by not giving counties the results of mismatches as a way to correct registration errors and weed out any fraud.
When Ohioans register to vote, they must provide their names, addresses, ages and either their drivers' license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. Computers seek to match that information with the state and federal databases.
Initial estimates are that as many as 200,000 of the 660,000 new voter registrations in Ohio since Jan. 1 have mismatches.
Brunner had argued that the federal law required her to do the matches but did not dictate what must be done with the mismatches -- and that the law prohibits using mismatches alone from disqualifying a voter.
She has said she is trying to provide the details but that the statewide voter registration database was poorly constructed and there appear to be problems with the matching process, raising doubts about the accuracy of mismatches.
For example, Brunner said it appears that when new voters provide a driver's license number and it matches motor-vehicle records, the computer still tries to match the Social Security database -- and a mismatch is returned because the voters left that field blank on their registration.
Voting-rights groups also insisted that studies have shown a large percentage of the mismatches are the results of typos when information is entered into databases or legitimate discrepancies, such as people giving a full name when they register and a shortened name when they get a driver's license.
Brunner said efforts will be made after the election to correct any problems with the state database or the matching process.
She and others have expressed concerns that county elections officials already are overburdened trying to prepare for the Nov. 4 election, and adding work to check the mismatches could cause confusion and other problems at the polls.
But Republicans insist that if Brunner had been doing her job as chief elections official, she would have addressed any problems months ago.
The GOP and others argued that if there is a tool to help correct mistakes and catch fraud, it should be used -- especially with allegations of registration fraud involving ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
There already have been a spate of elections lawsuits filed, and experts expect there could be others before the election with Ohio poised to play perhaps a deciding role in the presidential contest.
Brunner has had a mixed record on the lawsuits decided so far, winning today's case and an Ohio Supreme Court case involving whether Ohioans could register and immediately cast an absentee ballot between the start of early voting on Sept. 30 and the Oct. 6 voter-registration deadline.
But she lost challenges to her rulings not to allow outside observers for in-person absentee voting and to reject applications for absentee ballots printed by Republican John McCain's campaign if a box on the form wasn't checked.
Obama and ACORN are stealing this election. I have never worried so much for the survival of my country.
In 2008, their strategy is to disenfranchise the entire country.
Glad to see the GOP fighting back. Gives me some real hope.
I guess you idiots in Ohio can vote Brunner out if you don’t like it.
But since Brunner controls the counting and certification and has the court’s approval to cheat, it’s very unlikely that she’ll be voted out. :)
So you Ohioians will pay your taxes and like it.:D
Under SoS Frau Brunner, Ohio has become its own little Banana Republic.
Good grief! Why would any honest gov't worker refuse to examine such a charge? You don't suppose it's because she's a Democrat, do you?
Who says the Republicans aren’t doing anything about voter fraud?
Sounds like THESE Republicans are loaded for bear, and willing to use it.
I hope they prevail.
Maybe it will have to come down to McCain Vs. Gore?
As a major player from Camp Obuma, she is doing her job. Getting her "messiah" elected. To hell with what the American public wants, she's doing what she believes is good for them. They are too stupid to do it themselves.
She is doing her job! She’s a democrat before she’s an Ohioan, so she’s working to cheat the election with fraud so her democrta party gains complete control over Ohio. Elect democrats sand this is the scummy behavior you endure as they enable fraud and treason.
Wouldn't it be a hoot if O was elected, then invalidated due to fraudulent ACORN voters?
Good insight.
Why isn’t she swinging from the nearest tree?
Brunner is lying: HAVA requires her to make this list available to county elections officials so that they can verify who is an elligible voter.
SEC. 303. <> COMPUTERIZED STATEWIDE VOTER REGISTRATION LIST REQUIREMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR VOTERS WHO REGISTER BY MAIL.
(a) Computerized Statewide Voter Registration List Requirements.-- (1) Implementation.-- (A) In general.--
Except as provided in subparagraph (B), each State, acting through the chief State election official, shall implement, in a uniform and nondiscriminatory manner, a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list defined, maintained, and administered at the State level that contains the name and registration information of every legally registered voter in the State and assigns a unique identifier to each legally registered voter in the State (in this subsection referred to as the ``computerized list''), and includes the following:
(i) The computerized list shall serve as the single system for storing and managing the official list of registered voters throughout the State.
(ii) The computerized list contains the name and registration information of every legally registered voter in the State.
(iii) Under the computerized list, a unique identifier is assigned to each legally registered voter in the State.
(iv) The computerized list shall be coordinated with other agency databases within the State.
(v) Any election official in the State, including any local election official, may obtain immediate electronic access to the information contained in the computerized list.
It’s an outrage!
“Glad to see the GOP fighting back. Gives me some real hope.”
Yes!
Keep shining a light on the Rats’ roaches.
She’s a democrat before she’s an Ohioian and American!
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