Brunner Statement on Early Voting Brouhaha

Panicked at the prospect of a flood of new voters during the window for virtually simultaneous voter registration and early voting (September 30th to October 6th), the Ohio Republican Party is protesting against the legislative changes that they themselves wrote and pushed through the legislature late in 2005, and also claiming that the requirement that voters be registered at least thirty days before voting means that absentee ballots can't be submitted during that period.

Here is a new statement from Secretary of State on the issue, seeking to calm the waters and bring the parties together to resolve the dispute:

Our hope is that everyone will take a step back and work together in voters’ best interests to find solutions to these questions, rather than fight it out with press releases and lawsuits. Public squabbling just leads to voter confusion.

On Friday, we are holding a bipartisan meeting with representatives from the campaigns and the parties. Secretary Brunner’s goal is to get partisan politics out of elections administration.

Ohio law is clear – there is only one Election Day. This year, that’s November 4th. Any voter who is registered to vote 30 days prior to that election may request and submit an absentee ballot. That ballot is not permitted by law to be counted until the close of polls on Election Day, along with all other ballots.

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. Further, the practice has been in place since the 2006 primary election. Not a single question or concern has been raised about the overlap prior to this week.

Secretary Brunner has simply provided clear, consistent, statewide standards for boards of elections to comply with existing Ohio law.