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October 12, 2008
Ohio Secretary of State Must Verify Voter Registrations
As election day nears, the prospect of voter fraud rears it's ugly head again in the state of Ohio. In late September, the Ohio Republican party filed a lawsuit in federal district court seeking a retraction of the Ohio's Secretary of State Directive 2008-63, which allows citizens to request a ballot fewer than 30 days after their initial voter registration. The lawsuit alleged that Ohio is not in compliance with HAVA’s statewide database requirements, and that Ohio is further violating HAVA by failing to perform its matching and verification requirements.
In Ohio Republican Party et al v. Brunner, the "Plaintiffs (Repulican Party) raised the issue that the county boards of elections have no effective way to access and review the mismatches because the county boards of elections cannot run a search to isolate or identify the mismatches. Defendant (Ohio Secretary of State) admitted that the county boards of elections had no way to search or identify the mismatches. Defendant further indicated that the State, like the county boards of elections, at this time, also does not have the technological capabilities to run a search to identify or isolate mismatches. Defendant represented that it could take two or three days of programming work before the State would have the ability to search for mismatches in the same way it has the ability to search other fields such as the name, address, social security, date of birth, precinct number . . . etc. Based upon this information, it is clear to the Court that Defendant is not in compliance with HAVA, which requires matching for the purpose of verifying the identity of the voter before counting that person’s vote."
U.S. District Judge George C. Smith ruled that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must comply with the verification required by the Help America Vote Act by matching the new registrant’s information with the information in the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Social Security Administration databases. Secretary Brunner must also provide all county Boards of Elections with an effective way to access and review mismatches, such that HAVA’s matching requirements are not rendered meaningless. The Ohio attorney general's office is filing an immediate appeal on her behalf with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
For more information, check out:
- Election Law @ Moritz (Excellent Free Resource!)
- Ohio ordered to verify registrations, AP
- Republicans, Democrats Spar in Federal Coutroom Over Statewide Voter Registration Database Questions, Gongwer News Service [sub. req.]
Flashback to 2004...Voting Problems in Ohio...[RJ]
October 12, 2008 in Litigation in the News | Permalink
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Comments
You say, "Our entire democracy depends on fair elections. Voter fraud should be vigorously prosecuted by the authorities, with automatic jail time for offenders ... and that includes voter fraud perpetrated by high ranking officials as well."
Well that depends on whether you actually have a democracy, what authorities should be prosecuted and sent to jail. You think Republicans will be prosecuted and sent to jail? You can't even get responses to subpoenas. Hello?
Posted by: Ray | Nov 1, 2008 6:28:21 AM
It's a travesty that people like jennifer Brunner are allowed to hold public office. Our entire democracy depends on fair elections. Voter fraud should be vigorously prosecuted by the authorities, with automatic jail time for offenders ... and that includes voter fraud perpetrated by high ranking officials as well. Perhaps if stiff jail sentences were imposed, organizations like Acorn would think twice about defrauding the system, and defrauding the American people. This issue once again shows how important trust is ... and, that's why I would rather trust a man who would not sell out his fellow prisoners, even during 5 years of torture, than to trust a man who betrayed a 20 year friendship, for personal ambition.
Posted by: Howard | Oct 18, 2008 9:53:47 AM
