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By Stephen Majors
Associated Press writer
POSTED: 06:46 p.m. EDT, Oct 21, 2008
COLUMBUS: The Ohio Supreme Court today dismissed a lawsuit against the state's chief elections official over the handling of voter registration verifications after Republicans asked that it be tossed.
The move ends a court battle that had the potential to affect the ability of roughly 200,000 newly registered voters to cast a ballot in a crucial swing state. It had become a flash point for partisan accusations, with Democrats and voting rights groups accusing Republicans of trying to disenfranchise voters whose driver's license and Social Security numbers didn't match other government databases.
Republicans claimed Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, was trying to cover up fraud.
Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett said he asked that GOP fundraiser David Myhal, who filed the suit, withdraw his claims so that the parties can work toward a solution outside of court.
''We didn't file this lawsuit, but I've asked that it be withdrawn in the interest of negotiating a solution out of court,'' Bennett said in a statement. ''The legal wrangling on this issue has gone on long enough.''
The GOP presented the same argument to the U.S. Supreme Court that Myhal was making before the Ohio Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the GOP last week because it said the party didn't have standing to bring the claim.
Myhal and the party have argued that Brunner was violating the law by not providing counties with the names of voters whose registration information didn't match government databases.
An initial review found that about 200,000 of the 666,000 voters who had registered since Jan. 1 had mismatches.
Brunner said the mismatches were largely the result of clerical errors, misspellings and dropped middle names, and weren't any indication of potential fraud. She said federal law does not have any requirements for what to do with mismatches, and argued that the database was intended to eliminate duplicate registrations, not provide grounds to disqualify voters.
She said the voter challenges that would have resulted from relying on mismatches could have led to several provisional ballots being cast. A large percentage of provisional ballots cast during elections don't end up being counted.
''Ohio boards of elections would have faced grave challenges to successfully administering orderly and fair elections had this court action been successful,'' Brunner said in a statement. ''It is my hope that both parties will now come together to support Ohio's bipartisan election system and allow the preparation and training I have required of our state's election workers to proceed without further interference.''
Bennett said he was scheduled to meet Wednesday with Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers, a Democrat, to begin working out a solution to the dispute. Brunner has said she already has procedures in place with the local boards of elections to verify voter registrations, and has asked them to quickly investigate any evidence of fraud and report the findings to her.
COLUMBUS: The Ohio Supreme Court today dismissed a lawsuit against the state's chief elections official over the handling of voter registration verifications after Republicans asked that it be tossed.
The move ends a court battle that had the potential to affect the ability of roughly 200,000 newly registered voters to cast a ballot in a crucial swing state. It had become a flash point for partisan accusations, with Democrats and voting rights groups accusing Republicans of trying to disenfranchise voters whose driver's license and Social Security numbers didn't match other government databases.
Republicans claimed Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, was trying to cover up fraud.
Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett said he asked that GOP fundraiser David Myhal, who filed the suit, withdraw his claims so that the parties can work toward a solution outside of court.
''We didn't file this lawsuit, but I've asked that it be withdrawn in the interest of negotiating a solution out of court,'' Bennett said in a statement. ''The legal wrangling on this issue has gone on long enough.''
The GOP presented the same argument to the U.S. Supreme Court that Myhal was making before the Ohio Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the GOP last week because it said the party didn't have standing to bring the claim.
Myhal and the party have argued that Brunner was violating the law by not providing counties with the names of voters whose registration information didn't match government databases.
An initial review found that about 200,000 of the 666,000 voters who had registered since Jan. 1 had mismatches.
Brunner said the mismatches were largely the result of clerical errors, misspellings and dropped middle names, and weren't any indication of potential fraud. She said federal law does not have any requirements for what to do with mismatches, and argued that the database was intended to eliminate duplicate registrations, not provide grounds to disqualify voters.
She said the voter challenges that would have resulted from relying on mismatches could have led to several provisional ballots being cast. A large percentage of provisional ballots cast during elections don't end up being counted.
''Ohio boards of elections would have faced grave challenges to successfully administering orderly and fair elections had this court action been successful,'' Brunner said in a statement. ''It is my hope that both parties will now come together to support Ohio's bipartisan election system and allow the preparation and training I have required of our state's election workers to proceed without further interference.''
Bennett said he was scheduled to meet Wednesday with Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers, a Democrat, to begin working out a solution to the dispute. Brunner has said she already has procedures in place with the local boards of elections to verify voter registrations, and has asked them to quickly investigate any evidence of fraud and report the findings to her.
Comments
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Posted 07:28 PM, 10/21/2008
So the Supreme Court says voter fraud is just fine with them. Welcome to the USSA, folks, the United Socialist States of America.
Tallmadge, OH
Posted 07:37 PM, 10/21/2008
There is no voter fraud in Ohio. It's a figment of the Repuke-icans imagination. The Demorights will sweep the state in November with obama the Great President To be leading the way.
Seminole, FL
Posted 08:14 PM, 10/21/2008
History is littered with fraud on both sides of the aisle. To disparage the DNC as the only party to do that is not at all constructive....just selective...just my views....
Posted 09:08 PM, 10/21/2008
I thought the Republicans eliminated voter fraud by requiring voter ID's. I guess they didn't mean it.
Posted 09:25 PM, 10/21/2008
What a misleading headline. The OSC didn't "Toss" the suit, it was withdrawn by the filer. Yellow journalism at its best, ABJ style.
Posted 09:27 PM, 10/21/2008
your right Jon that was a VERY misleading headline!
Posted 11:47 PM, 10/21/2008
GOP arguments concerning voter registration fraud were bound to prove ironic--the following appeared today:
"John McCain's campaign has directed $175,000 to the firm of a Republican operative accused of massive voter registration fraud in several states.
"According to campaign finance records, a joint committee of the McCain-Palin campaign, the RNC and the the California Republican Party, made a $175,000 payment to the group Lincoln Strategy in June for purposes of 'registering voters.' The managing partner of that firm is Nathan Sproul, a renowned GOP operative who has been investigated on multiple occasions for suppressing Democratic voter turnout, throwing away registration forms and even spearheading efforts to get Ralph Nader on ballots to hinder the Democratic ticket."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/20/mccain-employing-gop-oper_n_136254.html
Akron, OH
Posted 12:49 AM, 10/22/2008
The Huffington Post??? The National Enquirer has higher standards.
