Friday, October 17, 2008

Supreme Court overturns Ohio voter registration ruling

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The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in an Ohio voter registration dispute.

Ohio's elections chief had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

The justices on Friday overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license
numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.

Ohio Republicans contended the information for counties would help prevent fraud. Brunner said the GOP is trying to disenfranchise voters.

Siding with the Ohio GOP, a federal appeals court had earlier this week ordered Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to set up a system for verifying the eligibility of new voters.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner wanted the high court to overturn the ruling she believes could have disenfranchise nearly a third of the newly registered voters in Ohio.

About 200,000 of 666,000 voters who have registered since Jan. 1 have records that don't match.

The GOP contends the information for counties would help prevent fraud. - ONN