Republicans Challenge NEOCH Settlement

Brunner Settlement Made Before Election Under Scrutiny

As we discussed back in October, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, temporarily settled the voter ID lawsuit. We could not reach agreement on the ID provision for election day because of time, but we got a directive to count the provisional ballots in a way that is fair and consistent with the law across the entire state. We signed a settlement that was certified by the court to have uniform standards for counting the provisional ballots in all 88 counties. Now that there is a close race between Stivers and Kilroy in Central Ohio for the U.S. Representative in District 15 the Republicans are claiming that there is a problem with our settlement. The Republican who currently leads by 400 votes has objected to the settlement agreement for how to count provisional votes.

The new lawsuit asks the Court to reopen this settlement and two voters have filed suit to overturn the Brunner issued settlement as well as her first directive. They are trying to eliminate provisional ballots in which the poll worker did not follow the proper procedure. So, in other words, the voter did everything that they were supposed to do, but for whatever reason their name did not appear in the poll book. The local board of elections certifies them to be a legitimate voter having voted in the correct precinct. The Board determines that they were who they said they were when the voter signed the provisional ballot. The voter filled out everything correctly on the provisional ballot, but because the poll worker did not sign or date the ballot those filing suit want the voter stripped of their vote. Through no fault of their own, but because an overworked elderly individual who only is employed for this one day by the County makes a mistake, the Republicans want to have the voter denied the ability to participate in the democratic process. Is that fair? Is that really what the Republican party has become?

We will keep you informed as the judges and lawyers work this out. I hope that the judges side with Ohio voters and give every legitimate voter the chance to cast a ballot.

Brian Davis
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.