brunner is doing her best to steal this election for nobama. to her dismay she has been caught.
On Oct 14, 6:00 am, "[ the last patriotic Republican ]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Voter Rights, Faulty > Electronic Voting Machines, Voter Fraud and GOP Voter > Challengeshttp://www.truthout.org/101308VA > Ohio is a key swing state that ended up deciding the outcome of the > 2004 election. But the state was riddled with voting problems, ranging > from breakdowns in electronic voting machines to accusations of > widespread voter disenfranchisement. We speak to Democrat Jennifer > Brunner, who was elected secretary of state of Ohio in November 2006. > > Juan Gonzalez: Ohio is a key swing state that ended up deciding > the outcome of the 2004 election. But the state was riddled with > voting problems, ranging from breakdowns in electronic voting machines > to accusations of widespread voter disenfranchisement. > > Amy Goodman: Democrat Jennifer Brunner was elected Secretary of > State in Ohio in November of 2006. She replaced Republican Kenneth > Blackwell. Since then, she has faced fire from virtually every side- > Republicans operatives, voting machine companies, voting rights groups > and more-as she has worked to resolve some of the voting problems from > four years ago. > > Most recently, the GOP asked a federal judge on Sunday to force > Secretary of State Brunner to match voter registration information, > such as a driver's license number, against information in the state > Bureau of Motor Vehicles database. Republicans filed the complaint > Sunday as an extension of a previous action against a week-long period > in which Ohioans could register and vote on that same day. > > Juan Gonzalez: Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner joins us > on the telephone now. Welcome to Democracy Now! > > Jennifer Brunner: Thank you, Juan. Good morning, Amy. > > Amy Goodman: It's good to have you with us. Why don't you talk-to > start off by talking about what this latest controversy is, this > lawsuit? > > Jennifer Brunner: This is currently pending in the federal > district court in the Southern District of Ohio in Columbus, and the > judge will be hearing arguments on this this morning at 11:00. The > Republican Party had this lawsuit in place when they were fighting the- > what we call the overlap voting, which is when absentee voting > started, before the close of voter registration, which allowed people > to go to an early voting site, register to vote, request an absentee > ballot, and vote it on the spot. > > In that original lawsuit, they were denied relief, first by the > federal judge, and then again by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. > But what they did was to try to renew a motion for a temporary > restraining order and now push this effort. And what really concerns > me is that the way these papers are pled, they're looking for a list > of all the mismatches by October 12th, and this is in light of the > fact that at this point in time we are informed that the Social > Security Administration will be shutting down its computers for the > comparisons from the 10th to the 13th for maintenance over the holiday > weekend. And they want that in time to-the Republican Party wants it > in time to be able to file challenges twenty days before the election, > to require ID, which is already required in Ohio, and also to push > people into provisional voting. > > Juan Gonzalez: Well, I'd like to ask you, you've been now > Secretary of State-you replaced the infamous and controversial Kenneth > Blackwell. And in the first year, you had a report called "EVEREST" > that looked at the situation in the voting system of Ohio. Could you > tell us about some of the main concerns that you had out of that > report? > > Jennifer Brunner: We focused on four areas. We focused on > security; reliability of the equipment and the systems; the > configuration, whether all of the systems throughout the state were > configured to the same software level; and also whether or not > procedures that local officials used were mitigating some of the > concerns that we found. > > Unfortunately, all of the equipment failed-I hate to say the word > "miserably," but it was a very big disappointment when we compared the > equipment, which is essentially computer-based equipment, to general > standards for security in the computer industry, computers that we > would use for banking, for travel, for communication. The type of > security that would be required was just not engineered in this > equipment. Not to say that it can't count correctly, but there were so > many risks presented that we took this to the legislature, asked the > legislature to fund us for all-paper ballot systems throughout the > state. But unfortunately, I think in part due to budget problems in > Ohio, but also due to the partisan nature of how that body is > operating, they were silent on providing us with any relief. > > So, what we did instead was to move forward with a bipartisan team > of election officials, devise best practices for security during every > step of the voting process, and then we have required security plans > from every board of elections. So we're making the best of it. In the > process, we discovered that the Diebold system, as memory cards from > the individual voting machines were being uploaded into the server in > one county, votes were dropping. So we are in the middle of litigation > against Diebold for that. > > Amy Goodman: We're talking to the Secretary of State of the swing > state of Ohio, Jennifer Brunner. More than 666,000 new voters have > been added to the voter rolls. How are you going to deal with the > numbers? The famous pictures of the past, with people waiting hour > after hour in the pouring rain-of course, that's going to lead to > people leaving the polling place before they vote. You're going to-how > are you dealing with close to 700,000 new voters? > > Jennifer Brunner: What we did was to look at what happened in Ohio > in 2004. In counties like Franklin County and Columbus and where > Kenyan College is, in Knox County, there was an inadequate number of > voting machines to serve those voters. So we have given the boards of > elections guidelines for what they need for the adequate distribution > of voting machines, but-and we've also said to the boards, you need to > actually publish to the public by the middle of October how many > voting machines you will have per precinct, and if you're not meeting > the guidelines, explain why. > > But we're not leaving it there. We have fifty-three of our eighty- > eight counties who use the touch-screen machines, which we understand, > aside from security issues, poses a straight supply-and-demand > concern. So we have backup paper ballots in the amount of 25 percent > of the number of people who voted in those precincts in the last > presidential election. And those boards of elections using the DREs > also have to provide to us a way that voters can move in two lines, > rather than one, to sign into their poll books and opt for a paper > ballot if they prefer not to vote on the electronic voting machine. We > think that's going to alleviate the congestion. > > And in addition, this is the first time Ohio had had absentee > voting for anyone who prefers to do that without any reason at all. So > we're seeing record numbers of people voting early, and a conservative > estimate is that 25 percent of Ohio's registered voters, or the number > of voters voting, will have voted before Election Day. > > Juan Gonzalez: The New York Post today has a front-page article > that touches in part on situations going on in Ohio, claiming that the > group ACORN has been involved in fraudulent voter registration at > apparently massive levels, according to some of their reports. What is > your concern about these allegations of fraud in voter registration > and people voting more than once? > > Jennifer Brunner: We have things built into our law so that > anytime someone registers, even if they register and vote on the same > day, a notification card is sent to them at their address. If that > card comes back, that certainly puts that registration into question. > The poll book is marked, and if that person were to show up at the > polling place, Ohio law now requires that Ohioans show ID, although > our ID law is much more liberal than, for instance, Indiana's. > > So-and then also our boards of elections do enter those voter > registration applications into a database that automatically is sent > to the Secretary of State's database. We're connected with T1 lines. > We run that, of course, through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, who > sends it on to the Social Security Administration if it can't get a > match on driver's license. > > So, we think there are some excellent safeguards built into the > law, but our own experience with ACORN in Ohio is there have been some > problems in the past, but the person who we work with, when there are > questions from ACORN is Katy Gall, who is a very experienced and > conscientious, and we've had nothing but good experiences working with > her. > > Amy Goodman: Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, what is Ohio's > laws on people who've served time in prison? This is confusing all > over the country. Many who have come out of prison do not know that > they actually can vote in most states. I mean, in places like Vermont, > you can actually vote from prison. But what are Ohio's laws here? > > Jennifer Brunner: In Ohio, it's very simple. If a person has been > convicted of a felony, as long as they are not incarcerated on that > felony, they can register and vote. Now, for instance, if they're > convicted of, say, possession of cocaine, a fifth-degree felony, and > they're placed on probation, they can certainly be registered and > vote. If, for instance, they violate their probation and they're > incarcerated on that probation violation, they would not be able to > vote during that period of time. But that is-and interestingly enough, > if someone is in jail on a misdemeanor, they can vote from jail, or if > they're in jail awaiting trial on new charges and not convicted of > something, they can vote from jail. > > Juan Gonzalez: One of the things that all of us remember from the > 2004 elections were these long lines in some polling places in Ohio > versus no lines in others. Now, we understand that each county > basically controls its own election apparatus, but what have you been > able to do to assure an equitable distribution of voting machines so > that every person in Ohio has basically the same access to exercise > their right to vote? > > Jennifer Brunner: Well, for the first time, we've issued a > directive that tells the boards of elections, here are the factors > that you need to consider when allocating your voting machines, things > like past turnout, new registrations, any recent purges under the > NVRA, the National Voter Registration Act, in addition to how many > ballot issues you have on the ballot, because it takes longer for > people to vote ballot issues. And we've said you've got to have a > minimum of one machine per 175 voters, when we're talking about the > touch-screen machines, and if you are not meeting those guidelines, > you have to explain to us why. But then, as we said before, the safety > net there is the backup paper ballots, which can be used if machines > malfunction, if a voter simply prefers a backup paper ballot, or if > the lines get to be too long. > > Amy Goodman: It is highly unusual, what happened in Ohio. You can > register and vote on the same day. When was that period? When did it > just end? How many people voted? And again, the numbers you have now, > quite amazing, after registration just finished on Monday: 8,184,138, > the highest number of registered voters ever in the state. What > happened? And do you see this as a model, of registering and voting on > the same day, something Republicans fought? > > Jennifer Brunner: The period of registration where you could still- > where you could register and vote on the same day began on September > 30th, and it ended Monday, October the 6th. We requested information > from all the counties on those voting figures, which we should be > getting back today. > > I can tell you, for instance, in Cuyahoga County, just the number > of people who showed up to vote early, whether or not they registered > in that week period of time, was 8,000. In one day, the Cuyahoga > County Board of Elections handled 2,500 voters at the Board of > Elections. I was at the board yesterday in Cuyahoga. It's an amazing > operation. They have about, I believe, forty-five stations, where > people can check in, have their registration checked, get a ballot, > and it's-they have two different floors people can vote on and 400 > parking places. It's a fantastic operation. > > Second part of your question, Amy, I'm sorry, I lost that one. > > Amy Goodman: The second part is, nationally, being a model, the > idea of voting and registering on the same day? > > Jennifer Brunner: This is not something new. States like Minnesota > and North Dakota already do-and I believe Montana-already do this for > all of their voters. And interestingly enough, in Minnesota, there's > no need for a provisional ballot. > > The fears that were being expressed and pushed to the national > media by the Ohio Republican Party really are unfounded. When you look > at what happened in a period-a four-year period in Ohio, in terms of > actual voter fraud, we had four individual cases with nearly eight > million registered voters in a four-year period, and one was a husband > and wife. As I said before, we've got the notices that go out when a > person registers. > > So, I think, you see, what's happened here is that the Republican > Party wants to push out that somehow the Secretary of State made this > up. Unfortunately for them, the Republicans have held the Ohio Senate > for twenty-four years and the Ohio House for fourteen years. And > apparently, when they adopted in 2005 this no-fault absentee voting, > they just didn't figure out what the consequences were. > > I look for, in the lame-duck session, the Republicans, who will > still be in control, to move to eliminate this five-day window. But, > you see, if you look at Ohio law-and there is such thing as a > provisional ballot for absentee voting-Ohio law does not kick that > provisional voting in for absentee until the twenty-eighth day before > the election. And when you think about this five- to seven-day period, > you have the voter there, the voter is registered, the voter has > provided ID, and the voter has their ballot. You have everything that > you need from this voter. Now, if it would be someone who's going to > take a risk to their liberty and commit a felony, we're probably going > to find out about it, because when we send that notice to them and > they don't respond and it comes back and they don't live where they > say they live, prosecutors are going to go after them. > > Amy Goodman: Well, Jennifer Brunner, we want to thank you very > much for being with us, Ohio Secretary of State. We're going to > continue our voting special after break with a new study by the > Brennan Center for Justice on voters across the country, voting being > purged through a process that's shrouded in secrecy. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. 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