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Home Front: Politix
About 200K Ohio voters have records discrepancies
2008-10-16
Close to one in every three newly registered Ohio voters will end up on court-ordered lists being sent to county election boards because they have some discrepancy in their records, an elections spokesman said Wednesday.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner estimated that an initial review found that about 200,000 newly registered voters reported information that did not match motor-vehicle or Social Security records, Brunner spokesman Kevin Kidder said. Some discrepancies could be as simple as a misspelling, while others could be more significant.
But Jennifer didn't want to review them at all, so you can plan on most of these being left alone ...
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati sided with the Ohio Republican Party on Tuesday and ordered Brunner to set up a system that provides those names to county elections boards. The GOP contends the information will help prevent fraud.

"Things already are in motion to comply," Kidder said. "We're working to establish these processes on how we can make this work. The computer work actually began last week."

About 666,000 Ohioans have registered to vote since January.

Brunner previously cross-checked new-voter registrations with databases run by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicle and the Social Security Administration and made the results available online, but the 6th Circuit said the information was not accessible in a way that would help county election boards ferret out mismatches.

Brunner, a Democrat, told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer on Wednesday that she is concerned the court decision is a veiled attempt at disenfranchising voters. Brunner said she'll urge counties not to force these people to use provisional ballots.
That's not her place. Vote integrity is just as important as enfranchising each and every legal voter.
The court gave Brunner until Friday to get election boards the information but it was unclear whether that deadline would be met. The court set no penalty for missing the deadline.

County election officials were trying to determine Wednesday how they will respond once they get the information. "I'm very concerned with these new requirements as we get closer to Election Day," said Steve Harsman, director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections in Dayton. He said his staff already is working 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
Posted by:Fred

#7  interesting comments in the linked article; its all the R's fault for bringing this on 'so late.' Thinking that maybe if ACORN tried for a late 3rd quarter play there wouldn't be enough time for the R's to get their hands on the ball and run out the clock.
And from the picture, she looks like a about 10 miles of bad road.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2008-10-16 17:11  

#6  Ohio's beloved Secretary of State explained all to the Huffington Post today. link Key bit of information is that the Supreme Court is awaiting a response brief from Ohio Republicans. She is also very annoyed with ACORN for getting caught, thus causing her problems.
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-10-16 16:15  

#5  Retain an attorney and sue for mental distress due to a hate crime.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-10-16 14:32  

#4  About 18 months ago I re-registered from Libertarian to Republican. During this re-registration, my name spelling was mangled. Living in the Great State of California - I conclude this was intentional because I wrote out the registration form very clearly. I wonder if you did a name spelling errors verses party affiliation study - What would you find?

(I haven't bothered to fix the spelling problem yet - but I worry that they will turn me away every time I vote. But - no worries here in California - they don't check your ID when you vote anyway! I could be anybody. Guess Democrats want it that way.)
Posted by: Leigh   2008-10-16 14:20  

#3  More, in the Cincinnati Enquirer, also an AP article:

Ohio's top elections chief has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a dispute over whether the state is required to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility, a spokesman for her office said Thursday. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, filed an appeal the high court late Wednesday, said spokesman Jeff Ortega. Brunner's office said Wednesday that she would comply with the lower court's ruling. Ortega said the office would release a statement later Thursday on why she chose to file an appeal.

At least 200,000 newly registered voters have mismatched data, according to an initial review by Brunner's office. About 666,000 Ohioans have registered to vote since January, with many doing so before the contested Democratic presidential primary election between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in March.

Posted by: trailing wife    2008-10-16 11:51  

#2  Most of these suspect records were likely clearly bogus and never intended to be voted; they were just entered by ACORN or whoever so they could make their quota and collect their commission. They have the unfortunate (and possibly intentional) effect of overwhelming the validation system and preventing investigation of the fraction of fraudulent registrations which ARE intended to be voted.

Probably a good number of the discrepancies are of potentially legitimate concern - listing of an address as Main St. vs. Main Street or such on different documents. In the end these would only be enforced against Republicans.
Posted by: Glenmore   2008-10-16 10:00  

#1  After saying she "would comply with the 6th US Circuit's ruling," Brunner has now submitted an emergency appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Appears she may have received a phone call from someone.
Posted by: Besoeker   2008-10-16 09:11  

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