Of all the 88 counties in Ohio to take on the “Elections Tyrant” SoS Jennifer Brunner, Union County, a suburban county outside of Columbus, has decided to give her the perverbial middle finger.
The Union County commissioners sued Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner yesterday to block her order that counties with touch-screen voting machines make a paper ballot available to voters on request.
You can read the story here.
We here find this issue fascinating to say the least. In one corner you have the Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. In the other corner you have the 88 County Boards of Election. In the middle, the 2008 Elections. SoS Brunner has leveled a number of directives following a nearly $2 million study on elections. Basically, Brunner wants all BOEs to go to Optical Scan paper ballots by the 2008 general election. The County BOEs think Brunner is over-reaching and the equipment they currently use is secure and accurate.
Lucky for us, the Columbus Dispatch had this storyon Friday in which they publish the results from a poll they did with county BOE officials regarding Brunner’s actions as SoS. Here is my favorite Question and Response:
Q: How confident are you in the security and accuracy of the equipment your county now uses?
Wow, take that you dirty, hippie conspiracy theorists!
We believe this is going to be a huge story throughout 2008 and some of our own conspiracy theorists feel that Brunner is trying to tank the 2008 elections and then blame it on the county BOEs, which would allow her to try to take over authority of the elections from the county BOEs and put it in her hands. Interesting thought and we shall see what occurs.
I’m telling you folks, the BOE people are really pissed about the powergrab by Brunner. The BOE members, for the most part, honestly think that Brunner is going to try to create confusion with the 2008 elections and then claim that the BOEs are responsible for the chaos and then she will try to take over the elections and take them away from the counties. At least the BOE folks I talked to think this way. We shall see…
Here is a release by Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett
(Columbus) – Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett called on Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner today to restore bipartisan respect and cooperation to Ohio’s election system.
Bennett cited numerous reports of Brunner’s ongoing heavy-handed tactics with county election board members, including today’s report from The Plain Dealer that she threatened to remove members of the Hardin County board of elections for disagreeing with her directive.
“I’ve heard from board members across the state who are frustrated and threatened by the culture of intimidation coming out of the secretary of state’s office,” said Bennett. “Jennifer Brunner’s message to these longtime elections experts is do it my way or you’re fired. Her arrogance is appalling, and quite frankly it shows a profound disrespect for people who have decades of experience running elections in this state.”
According to The Plain Dealer, “Brunner last week sent the board an ultimatum: change your mind or else, telling board members that ignoring her order is tantamount to insubordination and could be considered a violation of your oath. The secretary of state has the authority to remove members of election boards.” (The Plain Dealer, Openers Blog, 1/23/08)
The Plain Dealer previously reported that Brunner issued threats during a conference with elections officials last week in Columbus, telling reporters, “I’ll try to negotiate with them. But if they refuse to comply, I’ll have to look at what my options are. I have the ability to remove board members.” (Mark Rollenhagen, The Plain Dealer, 1/16/08)
“She’s constantly putting out these threats,” said Bennett. “And it does absolutely nothing to inspire loyalty and respect among these board members. Quite frankly, I’m convinced she’d get rid of every one of them if she had the choice. Jennifer Brunner wants to run the elections system in this state like a dictator. I think she’ll find out pretty quickly that she needs these people a lot more than they need her.”
Bennett also criticized Brunner’s arrogant response to criticism of her proposals raised by elections officials at a recent statewide conference, where she even resorted to cutting off one board member who dared to highlight several concerns during a question and answer session.
The Dispatch is having a field day today, with this story on our illustrious SoS Jennifer Brunner.
We are beginning to think that SoS Jennifer Brunner is purposely trying to cause chaos for the 2008 election. Maybe she will try to pull a Blackwell, i.e. cause choas with the BOEs with her mandates and orders-on-high and then come in and try to tell their base they “won the election” for thier candidate. We think something smells in this place…and it ain’t the big time $$ that this order will cost Ohio taxpayers.
Ohiorednovember's Weblog 