Observers must be allowed at early voting sites, Ohio Supreme Court rules

The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must order the county boards of elections to allow observers at sites for absentee early voting periods.

Brunner had taken the position that Ohio law does 'not require' observers during the early voting times, so boards were told they did not have to allow observers access to the sites. When a radio show host asked her spokesman, Jeff Ortega, about this interpretation - 'not required' being different from 'prohibited' - Ortega hung up.

It was a 4-3 decision with Republican Justices Paul Pfeifer, Terrence O'Donnell, Robert R. Cupp and Judge Lynn Charles Slaby of the 9th District Court of Appeals, a Republican hearing the case by assignment, in the majority. Dissenting were Republican Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, Republican Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger and Judge William Herman Wolff Jr. of the 2nd District Court of Appeals, a Democrat also sitting by assignment. Republican Justices Maureen O'Connor and Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, who are on the ballot this fall for re-election, removed themselves from the case.

This is a win for Ohio, especially in light of the coverage Palestra.net has provided about voting irregularities, and all the questionable registrations submitted by ACORN.

Here is the one-page ruling...opinion to follow.