“How is the 2008 Presidential Election going to be different than the election in 2000, 2004?”  MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow answered her own question with a gleeful sarcasm by cheering, “The supreme Court is already involved!”*

The state, of course, is Ohio.

(*see video at bottom)

            With about two weeks left until the big day let’s take a look at how we got here, shall we?

The Ohio Secretary of State is Democrat Jennifer Brunner, who ran a campaign about crossing party lines (you know, a Maverick).  She was elected in 2006 and replaced Kenneth Blackwell, a prominent African American in the Republican Party who went on to run for Governor that same year.  Blackwell lost to Democrat Ted Strickland gaining only 37% of the popular vote.  Currently you can see Blackwell as a talking head on Fox News for occasional commentary.

The public realized what kind of power a Secretary of State, the state’s top elections official, has back in 2000 when Katherine Harris, Florida’s former Secretary of State, infamously gave the deadline for counting votes.

            So in anticipation of continued court rulings for this years election I tried to make a more thorough guide of the events that have been leading up to this thing.

            This way when the sequel comes out you’ll already have seen the first one so you will know what everyone’s talking about already.

Jennifer Brunner & The Election Timeline

2006-2007 – Brunner says our voting machines have significant security flaws and should be replaced with new machines.  The first set of machines was purchased by Ken Blackwell.  There were also accusations that these machines, purchased from a company named Diebold, were “corrupted.”  Certain machines had consistent failures which led to thousands of votes having to be counted by hand.  In some cases, the machines even dropped votes.

Brunner implements EVEREST, an investigation into the legitimacy and accuracy of the voting machines that were purchased.

Ohio GOP responds by stating Brunner is “setting the stage for voter fraud” with some of the proposals such as counting votes in one centralized hub.

1.16.08 – Brunner announces that she wants to use paper ballots in the primaries over the touch screen voting machines.

2.05.08 – Ohio ACLU takes Brunner to court, saying that the switch would "disenfranchise" voters.  Court sides with Brunner. 

3.18.08 – Jennifer Brunner’s efforts to ensure fair and accurate voting leads her to receive the JFK Profile in Courage Award.

• A series of voting irregularities in several major Ohio counties that use electronic voting systems led newly elected Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to order that paper ballots be provided to any voter who requested one during the state’s March 2008 presidential primary.  Furthermore, Brunner called for the replacement of all of the state’s electronic voting systems – used in 53 of Ohio’s 88 counties – with paper ballots and optical scan technology before the November 2008 presidential election.  Critics have objected to the cost and questioned the necessity of Brunner’s proposals. 

8.14.08 –  During the election this year, from September 28 until October 6, Ohio first-time voters are able to register and vote by absentee ballot in the same day.

Criticism from Ohio GOP leads to Brunner to issue a statement about over the same day Registration / Voting by reminding Ohioans that she is not the person who created the window.

• The overlap between the end of voter registration and the beginning of absentee voting was created by the Ohio General Assembly and signed into law by former Governor Bob Taft.

To be fair, Time magazine named him one of the country’s worst governors during his time in office.

8.21.08 – Changing from previous Ohio practices, Brunner demands that voting machines shouldn’t be stored in poll workers… uh, cars and homes.

The company that made Diebold (now named Premier) admitted fault in votes being dropped in certain counties.  Brunner is suing to recover the money spent to buy the touch-screen voting machines.

Brunner also implemented a policy where if the voter desires, they can still vote on a paper ballot over using an electronic ballot (some have called it “paper or plastic”). 

(Brunner discusses Diebold and these problems in a more recent interview here)

9.12.08 – Ohio GOP files lawsuit against Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for implementing same day Registration & Voting.

9.18.08 – The Ohio Republican Party files another lawsuit against Jennifer Brunner – this time over absentee ballots.

Jennifer Brunner had instructed county election offices to disregard certain absentee ballots mailed from the McCain-Palin camp.  On those said ballots to be disqualified there was, in addition to a signature, a box to be checked if the filler-outer of the form agreed with the statement: “I am a qualified elector.”

9.19.08 – Obama camp reacts to GOP lawsuits against Brunner by calling for increased canvassing in Ohio.

9.28.08 – Early Voting begins.  Currently there are now two lawsuits by the Ohio GOP against Brunner’s simultaneous Same Day Registration / Early Voting window.

9.29.08 – Courts support the same day registration / early voting overlap, the decision was made by an all Republican Ohio Supreme court 4-3 decision

GOP criticizes’ Brunner’s decision to not allow observers during early voting; Brunner will allow observers on the actual Election Day.

Early Oct – Continued criticism of Brunner by GOP, even big names like Giuliani

Also after a Plain Dealer investigation discovered ACORN voting fraud, Ohio GOP claims Brunner has ties with the organization and served her as an “influential advisor.”

10.03.08 – Ohio court victory for GOP, says Brunner must count McCain-Palin absentee ballots regardless whether or not the “I am a qualified elector” box is checked or not.

• About 1 million applications for absentee ballots were mailed to [McCain] supporters, but thousands were threatened with invalidation because they did not have a box checked on the form that says the applicant is a qualified voter. This was the reason behind Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's (D) reason for not wanting to count these applications.

The court ruled that Brunner could not instruct those ballots to be discounted because of the absence of the checked box. However, as always, a signature must be required.

10.6.08 – Voter Registration in Ohio ends (30 days until the Election).

10.14.08 – In yet another case, the Ohio Republicans had filed charges against Brunner saying that she had no system of verifying the information given by newly registered voters to other government documents on other databases.  These are guidelines as set by HAVA, “a 2002 federal law, the Help America Vote Act… [that] requires states to check voter registration applications against government databases like those for driver’s license records. Names that do not match are flagged.”

Ohio Republicans are calling their motives protection against voter fraud but critics of these actions are crying voter caging.

Voter caging is a practice that involves challenging the validity of someone’s voter registration based on technicalities or loopholes in order to disqualify their vote.  In Ohio, as it turns out, it’s pretty easy to challenge votes.  If there are any discrepancies on the voter registration form and other forms of government I.D., e.g. driver’s license, social security number, then a voter may be challenged and their vote may nullified.

A preliminary check of Ohio's databases shows about 666,000 people have new or updated registration records. About 200,000 of them do not match the Bureau of Motor Vehicles' database.

This would also disqualify fellow Ohioan Joe the Plumber.

A U.S. circuit court of appeals rules in favor of GOP, demands Brunner check for voter information discrepancies. 

10.16.08 – Jennifer Brunner challenges the ruling by taking it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

10.17.08 – U.S. Supreme Court sides with Jennifer Brunner:

• The court said it expressed “no opinion on the question whether HAVA is being properly implemented.” But it said that Congress had probably not intended to allow private litigants like political parties to sue to enforce the part of the law concerning databases.

The decision was called a brief victory for the Democrats because the Ohio Republicans have already filed a similar suit.

Both sides of the aisle have accused the other one’s motives as being partisan-driven while touting their own as being in the best interest of the voters.  Because it’s not like it’s an election year or anything.

After all, this doesn’t happen in America, maybe Ohio, but not in America.

UPDATE: 10.20.08 - Latest GOP lawsuit is challenged by Brunner and goes to the Federal Court.

Also another good resource: http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/

10.20.08 - Ohio Secretary of State's website hacked into. "Monday's forced shutdown of the Ohio secretary of state's Web site appears to have been the most serious breach of a state government site in recent memory, according to state officials. "