OHIO BALLOT POLICY DECLARED ILLEGAL

A federal judge has laid the smack down on Ohio's in the tank Secretary of State:

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is breaking federal law by not giving county elections boards the chance to determine whether new voter registrations are fraudulent, a federal judge ruled this evening.

"It is hard to imagine a public interest more compelling than safeguarding the legitimacy of the election of the president of the United States," said Judge George C. Smith of U.S. District Court in Columbus in upholding the Ohio Republican Party's request for a court order.

Smith, appointed by President Reagan, said the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires states not only to verify the addresses and other identifying information provided by newly registered voters with the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the federal Social Security Administration, but also to provide counties with the names of new voters whose records did not match.

Brunner's office had been doing the computerized verification, but the GOP argued that Brunner had not made the names available to county elections boards. The judge gave her a week to comply.