Jennifer Brunner (D) Cand for OH SOS Reaches Out to Hear Voters’ Concerns

[eomer]

Discuss Your Voting Experience With Jennifer In Dayton

Wednesday July, 5, 2006

MEDIA ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Patrick Gallaway
Office: 614.255.4285, Mobile: [phone]
[e-mail]

Jennifer Brunner, Candidate for Ohio Secretary of State Reaches Out to Hear Voters’ Concerns

Columbus, OH – July 5, 2006 – Mayor Rhine McLin and Ohio Secretary of State Candidate Jennifer Brunner, want to hear from voters, poll workers, activists, and concerned citizens regarding your thoughts and experiences on voting in the greater Dayton area. They will host a Voter’s Forum to hear citizens’ concerns and experiences with the Ohio election process.

What: VOTER FORUM
When: Monday, July 10, 2006 – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Dayton Public Library - Madden Hills branch
2542 Germantown St., Dayton, OH 45408

An open invitation from Jennifer,

In my jobs as Judge, member of the Franklin County Board of Elections and Deputy Director and Legislative Counsel to the Ohio Secretary of State, I took oaths to uphold the laws and constitution of the United States and State of Ohio, and I took those oaths to heart. As Secretary of State, I will use that same vigor to protect Ohioans’ most basic American right —voting.

As Secretary of State, I will use my experience, including 13 years as an attorney practicing in the area of election law, to work as a partner with Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections to guarantee that elections in Ohio can be trusted. Every person who is eligible to vote and who wants to vote should be able to vote should be able to do so in a process that is free, fair, open and honest.

Here is an outline of my plan:

• Administer all elections in a fair, open and honest manner with a process that can be audited and verified.
  
• Ensure equal distribution of voting machines and enforce laws against voter intimidation and fraud.
  
• Honor the role of Secretary of State and not use the office or title to campaign for issues or candidates.
  
• Promote an informed electorate through innovative and interactive voter education techniques.
  

http://www.jenniferbrunner.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi?mode=story&id=17

Cross-posted in Ohio forum.

[mod mom]

1. I don't understand why the Dems aren't calling for free state issued IDs

for voters. The ID requirement that resulted from the GOP suppressive HB 3 will impose a "poll tax" on low icnome, elderly and college students. It will also cause huge lines where these people vote, because failure to have adequate ID will cause bottle necks. This will really hurt the Dem base. I don't understand why they haven't addressed it.

I asked Ms Brunner about IDs and also why she hasn't brought up the GAO Report on Electronic Voting after a PDA conference in March. She did not give me a response and one of her handlers quickly wisked her away from me. If anyone is planning to attend this session please ask her about these important issues.

[eomer]

Dup - delete (eom)

[eomer]

2. Hi mod mom. It seems like she is saying the right things, at least

from what I could find by googling it. I'll defer to your view though since you're on the ground and engaged in Ohio. And even if she's already on board then a question about it at the forum would still be a good thing.

Here's what I found, for what it's worth:

Report from a speaking engagement on 6/2/2006 (paraphrase by someone who heard her speak):

As Secretary of State she would advocate for repeal of the voter ID requirement in HB 3, and in fact testified against it before the law was passed. She said that there is a lawsuit being prepared to try to stop the voter ID requirement before the general election. If she is stuck with the voter ID requirement as Secretary of State, she declared, she could issue the IDs at the voting place.

http://ohio2006elections.blogspot.com/2006/06/secty-of-state-brunner-d-speaks-to.html

From her petition when she was campaigning for a veto of HB-3:

HB-3 will mandate that voters present an ID before voting. Voters without ID will be forced to vote a provisional ballot that may not be counted.
Fill out this petition and we will deliver it to Governor Bob Taft and tell him to veto this bill.

Dear Governor Taft,

Please veto House Bill 3. It will create longer lines at the polls, put my personal information at risk, and disenfranchise thousands of Ohio voters.

This is a voter discrimination bill.

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/12/ohio_house_bill.php

From a transcript of an interview in February, '06:

Gloria Ferris: On that note, since you were interested in that voter challenge, what as Secretary of State would you do to ensure the integrity of our voting system so those kinds of challenges wouldn’t be necessary?


George Nemeth: By the way, that’s Gloria Ferris of GloriaFerris.net.

Jennifer Brunner: Well, first of all, I want to say House Bill 3 is out there right now still looming, and I want to thank all of you for anything that you may have done which I know was significant in getting the word out about some of the problems with House Bill 3. And there are more problems than what I pointed out, but to get the idea across and to try with any amount of hope to impact what the legislature was doing, we focused strictly on the voter identification provisions in the Bill. And what’s happening right now with House Bill 3 is they are calling it, “Election Reform,” but if you go back to in the 1860s when the constitutions in the south were changed after African Americans got the rights to vote, they had massive election reform bills, and they weren’t really election reform bills; they were really meant to try to keep certain people from voting in the system. And when you have people as sophisticated at understanding elections, as Jeff Jacobson, who is the architect of that Bill, one of the architects of that Bill, I don’t believe for a minute that the real thrust of this Bill is election reform.

So the reality of it is, when I become Secretary of State (let’s just work from that premise), I will be stuck with whatever they have passed. I have a record working as a Judge in the Common Pleas Court, setting up a drug court, trying to help people be productive in the community and in the system to want to keep the system open, always keeping it safe, always keeping it fair, but keeping it open to as many people as possible. So in terms of what I will do is, if we have a requirement where people have to show photo identification to be able to vote, I will find a way, just as a State-issued ID, I’ll find a way to issue an ID, even if I have to at the polling place.

http://www.meetthebloggers.net/jennifer-brunner-transcript/

_{Bolding is by me.}

[mod mom]

3. Every Dem (& rightfully so) spoke out against HB 3. The issue is now it

is law why not fight it? ER advocates suggested a voter initial repealing it shortly after it was passed. This would have postponed the effects. There was no interest in doing this by the ODP. (Why? I don't know) That said why hasn't there been a push to get BOEs to issue FREE IDs for all voters? While it is true that every county BOE has 2 Ds and 2 Rs on their boards, Blackwell would have had to use his override power-making him look like the villian he is.

This is the DEM base voters who again will be disenfranchised by the GOP sponsored Poll Tax. It will not only eliminate voters from voting but will again cause those long lines where these voters usually vote due to the bottlenecks, THUS SUPPRESSING MORE VOTERS FROM LONG WAITS. I would like to hear Jennifer Bruuner do MORE than conjecture what she would do IF she was elected...the time for action is before the Nov midterms. THE DEMS NEED TO FIND A WAY TO INSURE THEIR BASE VOTERS WILL BE ABLE TO CAST VOTES THAT COUNT!