Ohio's new Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, gave the keynote address to the Ohio Association of Election Officials at their winter conference last week. In a candid speech she outlined her policies and procedures for the board of election officials gathered from Ohio's 88 counties.  

She spoke with genuine enthusiasm about her relationship to the group and her vision for turning around the negative poster child reputation Ohio has for running elections.  Her pillars of measuring that goal are for "free, fair, open, honest elections" in Ohio.  

This original song, www.bobforohio.com, by local bard and voting rights activist, Victoria Parks, outlines some of the foibles that brought down SOS Kenneth Blackwell.  An article in "Christianity Today Magazine," www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=39216, shows a more foreboding side of his candidacy and the religious right movement in Ohio that supported him.   A group called the "Ohio Restoration Project" launched a movement on the Statehouse steps in October 2005 to recruit 1,800 "Patriot Pastors" who in turn would draft new "values voters."  I witnessed this spectacle which included bused in church groups, entertainment, televangelist Rod Parsley and candidate Ken Blackwell. I was horrified as were many others.  Almost immediately an ecumenical group of mainstream religious leaders was formed to counter what they considered a dangerous mixing of church and state in this political movement.  Some filed IRS complaints, others, "We Believe Ohio," formulated a counter message of political action focused on social justice  

Another victory in support of free and fair elections for Ohio voters!   U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley ordered Ohio county boards of elections to preserve the ballots of the 2004 election to be saved until further notice.  Is the tide beginning to turn in Ohio?  Let's hope so.  However, voters still face the huge hurdle of HB 3's new voter ID requirements, which are so confusing and detrimental to the voting process as to be considered a voter suppression strategy by critics.  With two positive court decisions in favor of the public interest, there is a renewed interest in possibly litigating these draconian ID requirements.

More drama surrounding Blackwell's campaign for governor, and the third party ads in support of his candidacy appeared today.  Democrats have brought an action in the state Supreme Court asking that the group sponsoring the ads, Common Sense 2006, be required to disclose its backers, "a case reminiscent of a 2000 battle over ads against one of Ohio's justices." Common Cause/OH and The Alliance for Democracy  brought that suit, which after being litigated for five years in every court, state and federal, finally got a favorable ruling, that the group sponsoring the ads was a PAC, and corporate contributors had to be disclosed.  

Common Cause/Ohio is one of the plaintiffs which last Thursday filed an Application for Preliminary Injunction in Federal District Court against Secretary of State Blackwell and the prosecuting attorneys of Summit and Cuyahoga Counties.  The complaint challenges the "onerous" new laws and regulations related to "core political speech and association activities."  It also specifically alleges violation of the National Voting Rights Act.

Plaintiffs, who also include Project Vote, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Ohio Now, People for the American Way Foundation, Communities of Faith Assemblies Church and American Association of People with Disabilities, feel that the new requirements will severely harm the efforts of those civic groups which typically do registration drives, by making it almost impossible for them to hire and train workers, and do the kind of quality control that is necessary in this type of effort.

In a raucous hearing of the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, the committee voted along party lines, 6-4, against Democratic motions to invalidate Secretary of State Blackwell's rules to implement the draconian measures in House Bill 3 which the Democrats and other critics say will suppress voter registration in Ohio.

The rules threaten that anyone receiving "compensation" who fails to turn in a registration form in the manner prescribed could be facing a fifth-degree felony and possible jail time.  As the Democrats pointed out this could have a chilling effect on those groups who have traditionally organized to register new voters.  The Democratic members were outspoken in their criticism of Blackwell, Cleveland Senator C. J. Prentiss saying, "It's just another example in a long laundry list of what Secretary Blackwell will do to trample voting rights." Republican Senator Jeff Jacobson in an angry retort accused the Democrats of a "deliberate attempt to smear the secretary of state."  

Whatever your politics, one cannot deny the landscape will be dramatically changed as far as doing mass voter registration drives.  

Candidate for secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, was holding her own out in the hallway with Jacobson, the most outspoken Republican supporting the new law and its new rules, claiming issues of constitutionality.  There are rumors of law suits in the works.  Stay tuned.  It never gets dull in Columbus, for those who are paying attention.

Samuel Gresham, Common Cause/Ohio's Acting Executive Director, will be appearing again tomorrow on WOSU TV's "On the Record," a news roundtable show, featuring political journalist and other veteran political observers. Sam has become a regular on this local Friday evening show that is similar in format to PBS's "Washington Week." One of the topics for this week will be a discussion of religion and politics, Strictland v Blackwell.

Blackwell is in the news again, this time the  controversy is over his campaign web site. Candidate for Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has raised questions about it being easier to register to vote on Blackwell's site than on the official Secretary of State web site.  She also claimed that Blackwell was registering people from other states on his campaign web site.  Blackwell's spokesperson says that it is all a result of the web site vendor using the same database for his different clients.