WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court came to the aid of the Democrats on Friday in the closely contested state of Ohio and threw out a lawsuit from the state's Republican Party that sought to question tens of thousands of newly registered voters
The high court, in a brief and unanimous opinion, said the federal law that called for computer checks of new voters did not authorize private lawsuits to enforce it.
The ruling is a victory for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat. She said her office had complied with the Help America Vote Act and had checked new voters against state records, including the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The state sends a message to county election officials if a new registrant is already on the voter rolls elsewhere or if the information, such as a street address, does not match the records on file.
But Brunner fought a GOP demand to release a list of "mismatches" for all 88 counties in Ohio. She said she feared this could lead to chaos on election day if the GOP used the lists to mount last-minute challenges to new voters.
Ohio has seen more than 660,000 new registered voters this year. And for 200,000, the state had spotted a mismatch, she said. Most of these mistakes are due to faulty record-keeping, she added.
One such example came to light this week. Joseph Wurzelbacher, or "Joe the Plumber," became a celebrated figure in the third debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. But several Ohio newspapers said his name is misspelled as "Worzelbacher" in the state's voter files. That mismatch could have led to him being challenged at the polls if he were a newly registered voter. Such a voter could be required to cast a provisional ballot, which would be counted only if the registration was confirmed.
The Ohio lawsuit played out in the last two weeks against the backdrop of Republican charges that groups such as ACORN have turned in thousands of suspect registrations.
Reacting to the high court's ruling, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett accused Brunner of "actively working to conceal fraudulent activity in this election. . . . Ohioans are right to be outraged and disgusted by her partisanship. The Democrats have proven once again they'd rather steal elections than win them fairly."
He said the Supreme Court had ruled "on a technicality, not on the merits of the case."
