Supreme Court Sides With Democrats on Ohio Voter Eligibility

Rick Davis, campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said that "we expect the secretary of state" to do her job in investigating problematic registrations.

In a lawsuit filed Sept. 26, the Ohio Republican Party claimed that the voter registration database violates the Help America Vote Act because there is no requirement to match information against the other government databases as a condition for eligibility to cast a regular ballot. The allegation was among a number of GOP claims against Brunner in a season of escalating election-related litigation in the Buckeye State, which has 20 electoral votes up for grabs.

In 2004, President Bush won Ohio by about 118,000 votes amid bitter disputes over decisions by Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican secretary of state at the time. Days before the election four years ago, Republicans dropped a plan to challenge more than 30,000 voters.

This year, Brunner and Republicans have gone to court on several issues, including how to handle absentee ballot requests and absentee voting.

In challenging the temporary restraining order, Brunner argued that producing lists of voters with mismatched records would disrupt local election boards that "have vitally important jobs to do in preparing Ohio for this historic election." She said any problems could be corrected after the election.

The Republican lawsuit "is a very orchestrated effort to suppress voting," Brunner said yesterday.

State Democratic Party spokesman Alex Goepfert said it was "clear that the Republican Party would seek to use this information to disenfranchise eligible Ohio voters who have done absolutely nothing wrong."