The Nation's Interest in Ohio's New Secretary of State

[L. Coyote]

by Edward B. "Ned" Foley - February 13, 2007
Director, Election Law - Moritz College of Law
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/articles.php?ID=117

Ohio has a new Secretary of State, and that fact has potential implications for the nation as well as the state.

Jennifer Brunner has previous experience in the office she now heads and, as she has proclaimed publicly on multiple occasions, is determined not to make the mistakes of her predecessor, Ken Blackwell.

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/articles.php?ID=117

Secretary Brunner’s exercise of her authority will affect the nation in other, less obvious but perhaps even more important, ways. Because of the problems that occurred in Ohio in 2004, the League of Women Voters filed a major lawsuit against her predecessor, claiming that administration of the voting process in the state pervasively violated Equal Protection and asking the federal court to supervise top-to-bottom reform. Citing Bush v. Gore, the trial-level federal judge rejected then-Secretary Blackwell’s motion to dismiss the case.

MUCH MORE

[Botany]

1. I loves me some Brunner

Go Jenny Junk .... her high school name.

Betya that repugs are sweating bullets because between her and Marc Dann
2004 might very well come out.

[L. Coyote]

2. League of Women Voters v. Blackwell Filings

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/lwv05.php

FILINGS are all available in PDFs.
=========
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio
Case No. 3:05-cv-7309

U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit
Case No. 06-3335

District Court Documents

* Complaint pdf file (filed 7/28/2005)
* Motion to dismiss pdf file (filed 8/29/2005)
* Opposition to Motion to Dismiss pdf file (filed 9/19/2005)

LONG LIST......

[Stevepol]

3. K&R!!

[L. Coyote]

4. Glaring Omision: King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell

Glaring in its omission is mention of:

= King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell =

The article reads:

"... There is other important litigation pending against the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, including a case that specifically concerns the procedures for implementing the state’s rules regarding voter identification and provisional voting. Secretary Brunner has indicated her desire to settle all these suits, and the collective effect of all these settlements will shape the landscape of voting administration in this state as well as set a potential benchmark for practices elsewhere in the nation. Anyone interested in what rules will be in place for voting procedures in 2008 should look for further news about the likely settlements of these lawsuits....."

The "other important litigation pending" mentioned above links in the article to "League of Women Voters v. Blackwell." However, the more important case may be:

= King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell =

Whether the rights, privileges, and immunities guaranteed to Plaintiffs by the Civil Rights Act, and the First, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been violated by the past and ongoing conduct of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell in connection with past elections in Ohio.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
Case No. 2:06-cv-00745-ALM-TPK
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/klbna.php

Individual voters and three voters' rights groups sued Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell alleging that Blackwell allocated election resources in a racially discriminatory manner and instituted racially discriminatory procedures for provisional voting, purging voters from the statewide voter registration database, and maintaining the chain of custody of ballots. The complaint alleged that these actions led to the dilution and/or cancellation of plaintiffs' vote due to ballot cancellation and tampering, long poll lines, mechanical difficulties with voting machines, and unclear precinct boundaries. The complaint claims that plaintiffs reasonably fear these problems will recur in the November, 2006, election, and asks the court to appoint a special master to perform Blackwell's election administration duties in that election.

District Court Documents

* Complaint pdf file (filed 8/31/06) http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/Complaint_002.pdf

* Joint MOTION to Stay all proceedings until April 9, 2007 pdf file (filed 2/5/07) http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/KLBNA-jointmotiontostayproceedings.pdf