The Ohio Secretary of State appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the office should be required to reprogram the statewide voter registration database by today.
Reprogramming the state's database would allow county boards of election to access about 200,000 voter registration records with inconsistencies. These inconsistencies refer to new and altered voter registrations from Jan 1. to Oct. 6 that did not match the information in state and federal databases.
The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet decided to hear the case.
Lawyers for the Ohio Republican Party contend that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner can ask the lower court for more time if today's deadline could not be met, according to documents filed in the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday.
A mismatched voter registration can be caused by a clerical error or an unreported change in address, said Patrick Gallaway, director of communications for the secretary of state's office.
These registrations are flagged so that poll workers know to clear up the identity inconsistency when voters arrive at the polls or ask the voter to cast a provisional ballot that can be resolved later, he said.
The Ohio Republican party is concerned about fraudulent voting that could occur if these mismatches are not investigated by Brunner's office, said John McClelland, a spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party.
The Sixth District Court of Appeals upheld Tuesday that Brunner would have to make these mismatched registrations available to the county boards of elections by today.
In a news release Tuesday, Brunner said she would work with the federal court even though she believed the ruling went beyond federal voting law.
But Brunner's office turned to the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday to avoid overtaxing the office by trying to meet the deadline so close to the Nov. 4 election, Gallaway said.
County boards of election, including Athens', cannot begin correcting the mismatched voter registrations until a final decision is reached.
Those boards will have access to the mismatched registrations so that the inconsistencies can be cleared up before Election Day, Gallaway said. The secretary of state is now undertaking her best efforts to reprogram the state voter registration database, according to the U.S. Supreme Court filing.
The office also wants to protect eligible voters from needing to cast provisional ballots, according to news releases. These are subject to partisan attacks and legal wrangling after the election that could penalize a voter, Brunner said in a news release yesterday.
More potential provisional votes will cause problems for voters on Election Day, Gallaway said.
It creates havoc on election day
he said. It takes longer for the voter and the voter is left with the feeling that they don't know if their vote will count.
But McClelland said this is just a scare tactic.
If you are a legitimately registered voter that will get cleared up
and your vote will count
he said. There's no voter suppression here.
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Rebecca Black
