Blackeye State

"Welcome to Ohio - where a voter-fraud brush fire is making the Buckeye State into the Blackeye State, thanks to Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner."

That's what Peter Bronson writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer article, "Blackeye State, thanks to Brunner," and then he details why.

And if the court cases and voter registration verification problems weren't enough, our partisan Secretary of State has issued her 100th directive - and she's not even finished with her 10th month in office.

"Jennifer Brunner has every elections official in the state swimming in red tape," said Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine in a press release. "One of the major newspapers called her a micro-meddler several months ago. She's been out to prove it ever since."

Brunner's latest round of micro-management instructs election administrators on what to do with absentee ballots cast by voters whose registrations don't match up with federal and state databases.

"This is the same mismatch information Brunner has so far failed to provide to county election administrators," said DeWine. "At this point she's telling elections officials what to do with information she hasn't even provided them. Until she releases the 200,000 questionable registrations on file in her office, this directive is worthless."

By comparison, Brunner's predecessor, Ken Blackwell, had only issued 42 directives by October 25, 2004, the first presidential election with the new voting machines.

But the reason she's doing this all for the local boards of elections:

"My first concern is for the boards of elections because they are on the ground, in the trenches, doing the work with the voters, and if i have to be the lightning rod for the boards of elections so they can be left alone undisturbed, then so be it." (Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, 10/17/08)

Sadly, the only time Brunner has left Ohio's election officials alone and undisturbed is when they ask for a system of validating thousands of potentially fraudulent registrations.

In the same press release, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett said:

"These board members are outraged by her attempts to keep them from doing their jobs. Secretary Brunner has done nothing but scare, intimidate and stonewall Ohio's hard-working election officials, and her record of disrespect for them and their work is well-documented."

But then our governor, Ted Strickland, weighs in on the issue and says he sees "no evidence" of election fraud here in Ohio. I guess he missed the following:

* A Democrat activist group with strong ties to Barack Obama has publicly testified that its members engage in election fraud right here in Ohio - possibly submitting thousands of fraudulent registrations. (The Plain Dealer, 10/7/08)

* The same group, ACORN, is accused of illegally giving cash and cigarettes to get an Ohio man to register to vote 72 times over an 18-month period. (New York Post, 10/11/08)

* Hamilton County election officials say at least 10,000 duplicate registrations have been submitted and possibly "thousands of fictitious ones." (Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/10/08)

* One man admitted ACORN convinced him to register multiple times and cast a bogus ballot with a fake address. (New York Post, 10/13/08)

* At least 13 college students are under investigation by the Franklin County prosecutor for violating residency requirements to cast illegal ballots. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/16/08)

* and all of the videos on Ohio and voter fraud being done by Shelby Holliday and Tiffany Wilson at Palestra.net.

This is an embarrassing way to run an election and it does, indeed, give Ohio a black eye.

"Well, I tell you what, it helps in Ohio that we've got Democrats in charge of the machines." ~ Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama (Columbus Dispatch)