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.