The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with a majority of Republican-appointed members, ruled Tuesday that Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must set up a system by Friday after a successful challenge from Ohio Republicans. Some 660,000 new voters have registered since January.
Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett charged that that Brunner's "shameful actions to disenfranchise Republican absentee voters, block the transparency of early voting and refuse the proper verification of newly registered voters have rightfully damaged her credibility as a nonpartisan election administrator" and the public's trust in Ohio's election system.
Brunner states that there was no way to set up a system in such a small amount of time. The ruling states that the 660,000 names be compared with data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration. This verification method has been criticized for removing voters as non-matches for very simple discrepancies, such as lack of a middle initial or a misspelled name.
Brunner noted that nothing in the federal Help America Vote Act required her to do what the district court ordered.
Josef Stalin:
Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything.
The Republican onslaught of the past 40 years has produced an arsenal that is just as dangerous as a militia's weapons cache. Walking insurgents with party titles and nice suits, armies of lawyers, and courts stacked with Republican-appointed judges.
Folks, you think this game is over?