Very important ruling, given that Bush won Ohio by less than 200,000 votes in 2000 and 2004.
Supreme Court Rules With Ohio Secretary of State on Voter Fraud RulesThe U.S. Supreme Court rules with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, granting her a stay to a temporary restraining order from a federal appeals court that ordered her to provide a system for implementing voter fraud prevention methods.
FOXNews.com
Friday, October 17, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Democratic Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, granting her a stay on Friday to a temporary restraining order from the 6th Circuit Court that ordered her to provide a system for implementing voter fraud prevention methods.
The decision by the full court repudiates the lower court's ruling siding with the Ohio Republican Party and ordering Brunner to verify records of about 200,000 of 666,000 new voters this year whose driver's license and Social Security records don't match information in other government databases.
Hedging her bets, Brunner filed a motion late Thursday night asking the federal appeals court to extend or modify an earlier order to come up with a system to help counties verify voter eligibility.
Circuit Court Judge George Smith set the completion time for Brunner to come up with a method for validating mismatched voter registration data at midnight Saturday. Brunner, who filed a request for a stay of the order with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, asked for a two-week extension so she could be compliant if the high court didn't see her way.
The Ohio Republican Party filed the initial suit challenging the state's compliance with the Help America Vote Act, alleging that the state has no system to deal with mismatched voter records.
On Tuesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati sided with the GOP. Brunner responded with an appeal to the high court.
In its reply brief to the Supreme Court, the Ohio GOP said if Brunner needed relief from the temporary restraining order then she should seek it from Smith, who issued the ruling.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/17/ohio-secretary-state-files-extension-compliance-circuit-court-voter-fraud/
