Blistering criticism of Brunner
The Columbus Dispatch accuses Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in an editorial today of:
- committing a "serious blunder" in failing to properly check voter registrations,
- damaging her credibility as a nonpartisan election administrator,
- undermining the integrity of the vote, and
- destroying public trust in Ohio's election system.
Pretty much everything you don't want in a chief elections officer.
Provoking Doubt
By trying to prevent county boards of elections from investigating discrepancies in new voter registrations, she is putting partisan considerations ahead of the public interest in fair elections. And in doing that, the Democrat is inviting a direct comparison to her Republican predecessor, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who undercut his credibility as an impartial election arbiter because of his partisan decisions leading up to the 2004 presidential election.
In addition to discrediting herself, Brunner's attempt to withhold the data undermines the integrity of the election system.
Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the Ohio Republican Party, Judge George C. Smith of U.S. District Court in Columbus said on Thursday that federal law requires that states verify addresses and other identifying data of new registrants and share with the bipartisan county boards the names of people with mismatched data. Brunner released the number of cases of mismatched data but not the names of registrants. County boards of elections need those names to resolve any discrepancies.
Smith's common-sense order would not have been necessary had the secretary of state simply fulfilled her responsibility to supply these details to local elections officials. Instead, she let partisanship guide her decision to withhold the information. She apparently is afraid that the state GOP will use the list of registration discrepancies for a wholesale challenge of new registrations, many of them from people likely to vote Democratic.
The Republicans say they don't plan to do that, but whether they do or not is immaterial. Brunner's obligation is to make the information available.
The bipartisan county boards should be trusted not to automatically delete from registration lists the names of new voters with mismatched data. Elections officials flag the mismatches in driver's-license numbers, Social Security numbers or other data, but that's just a starting point for additional checking.
Data mismatches are likely to be the result of transposed numbers or letters, different spellings of names or flubs in the home address. Those cases can be rectified without disenfranchising qualified voters.
Documented cases of voter fraud are uncommon in Ohio, but that doesn't lessen elections officials' responsibility to verify registrations to the fullest extent. That's particularly true when massive voter-registration campaigns, common in presidential years, increase the odds of goofs by registrants and by the people entering the data into computers.
And the fact is that some registrations likely are illegitimate. Smith's ruling cited the questionable activity of ACORN, a group that has registered thousands of Ohioans.
The Cuyahoga County Elections Board is investigating about 50 suspicious registrations collected by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Registration cards supplied by ACORN had duplicate names, which might indicate that paid canvassers shared names to reach their collection quotas.
ACORN officials admitted to Cuyahoga County officials that their group lacks the staff and internal controls to catch every case of deception.
Deputy Director Mathew Damschroder of the Franklin County Board of Elections said that using registration discrepancy information to double-check registrations is "another arrow in the quiver" to protect against election falsification.
Meanwhile, Brunner campaigned for office by promising to restore trust in the election system and in the secretary of state's office, but once again she is doing the opposite.
