http://www.jenniferbrunner.com/view/news/139The Toledo Blade
January 16, 2008
With public trust in Ohio elections in the balance, leave it to the state Republican Party to try to carve out partisan advantage.
That's the inescapable indication of what's afoot in Columbus after word leaked about a secret meeting of Republican members of county boards of elections called by state party apparatchiks this week to stir up opposition to Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's plan to scrap touch-screen voting.
Instead of helping to figure out how to make elections in this state more secure amid real questions raised by an independent study that cast serious doubt on the integrity of touch-screen voting, GOP operatives appear to be continuing down the low road with an undeserved partisan jab at Ms. Brunner.
Indeed, a key reason Ohio's election system is in doubt now is because of Republican obstructionism at both the state and national levels following the contested presidential election in 2000.
Even after that election laid bare the inaccuracy of punch-card voting in Florida, GOP leaders claimed no problems existed and refused to take any action for nearly two years.
They didn't want to admit that defects in punch-card systems, which were also in use in Ohio and elsewhere, had given a Republican tainted entree to the White House.