Ohio GOP Sues Brunner Over Implementing Same-Day Registration and Voting

Continuing their crass efforts to sandbag Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and suppress Democratic voters, the Ohio Republican Party filed a mandamus action in the Ohio Supreme Court today that is intended to stop Brunner's implementation of a short overlap for same-day registration and in-person early voting. This overlap, from September 30th to October 6th, was created by election laws passed by the GOP and has been in place for some time without objection. For background on the issue see here, here, here, and here. Brunner's sensible implementation of the law has been approved in a number of newspaper editorials including one in the Columbus Dispatch.

Secretary Brunner points out in a press release today that the Ohio Republican Party failed to raise concerns about the overlap at a meeting held a few weeks ago to help avoid costly 11th hour litigation over election procedures. Now they have done exactly what Brunner sought in good faith to avert:

[T]he Ohio Republican Party has chosen to use the courts to challenge a law passed by the General Assembly under their watch, signed by former Governor Taft, and used, without incident or concern, since the 2006 primary election.

This pattern of attempting to inject chaos and confusion into the state's election process has the very real potential to shake voter confidence in our elections. This kind of litigation is a continuation of the formula that was so successful in 2004: create confusion and chaos. The more this continues, the greater potential damage to voters as Election Day draws nearer.

It is our hope that the Ohio Republican Party will withdraw their divisive lawsuit and work cooperatively in a bipartisan manner to protect the rights of all Ohioans to register and vote during this overlap.

The leading election law expert in Ohio, Prof. Dan Tokaji of the Mortiz College of Law at the Ohio State University, has called the ORP's objection to the overlap "blatant voter suppression," and calls Brunner's interpretation "exactly what the law says and what it allows."

Today's lawsuit is a clear sign that the GOP is gearing up a campaign of voter suppression and intimidation across the battleground states, further evidenced by news that the GOP in Michigan plan to challenge the voting rights of homeowners who are enduring foreclosure proceedings and that a GOP official in Ohio refuses to rule out similar challenges here.