GOP Chairman Blasts OH SOS Brunner for Intimidation

[mod mom]

GOP Chairman blasts Brunner for intimidation


Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett called on Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner today to restore "bipartisan respect and cooperation" to Ohio's election system.

In a news statement issued shortly after Brunner, a Democrat, released results of a statewide survey (see related item below), Bennett cited numerous reports of Brunner's ongoing "heavy-handed tactics" with county election board members for disagreeing with her directives.

"I've heard from board members across the state who are frustrated and threatened by the culture of intimidation coming out of the secretary of state's office," Bennett said. "Jennifer Brunner's message to these longtime elections experts is do it my way or you're fired. Her arrogance is appalling, and quite frankly it shows a profound disrespect for people who have decades of experience running elections in this state."

"She's constantly putting out these threats," Bennett said. "And it does absolutely nothing to inspire loyalty and respect among these board members. Quite frankly, I'm convinced she'd get rid of every one of them if she had the choice. Jennifer Brunner wants to run the elections system in this state like a dictator. I think she'll find out pretty quickly that she needs these people a lot more than they need her."

Bennett also criticized Brunner's "arrogant response" to criticism of her proposals raised by election officials at a recent statewide conference, where she interrupted a Republican board member from Mahoning County who praised his county's touch-screen voting system.

-snip
http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/default.asp

PLS CONSIDER LEAVING A COMMENT AFTER THIS BLOG-IT CAN BE DONE ANONYMOUSLY!

[Deep13]

1. My response.

Translation: "Wa-a-a-ah! We don't have state government to ourselves anymore!" Cry me a river!

[mod mom]

2. The GOP certainly doesn't want a vote that can be verified-how would they win?

[Deep13]

3. My wife and I donated to Brunner's election campaign.

So far, we have no reason to regret it. I think she is future gubernatorial material.

[Botany]

4. I.O.W.

She will not let the county BOEs fix voting anymore.

BTW nice work in Cuyahoga County in 2004 Bennett.

[rateyes]

5. And, what did Bennett have to say about the job

Ken Blackwell did with elections?

Bennett can stick it.

[EFerrari]

6. Remember they tried to smear Debra, too?

It's a good idea to participate in the paper's discussion section. One more venue for push back.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

8. she's no Debra

If you read up on it, go to the CASE OHIO list serve, follow Brunner's history of ignoring
well qualified experts who already advised her a year ago, if you saw the humoungous and damaging changes she wanted to impliment in Ohio, you would know that Brunner is no Bowen.

Super Precincts -
eliminating 90% of polling places
everyone or most everyone has somewhere new to vote,
you still have to vote at a specific location
central counting of the ballots

IT just plain sucks. And that was Brunner's plan.

[EFerrari]

9. That's too bad. I thought Ohio was going to get a break for once. n/t

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Pot speaking to Kettle

If Brunner's recommendations weren't so messed up (Super Precincts, central count, vote by mail)
then there would be less fuel for the fire.

Sadly, Brunner has given many reason to criticize, and not just the partisans.

[mod mom]

10. Are one of you DUers responsible for this comment?

anonymous said...
THe Ohio GOP is well aware that they will be absolutely blown out of the water if the votes are counted honestly in 2008. The Democrat nominee will win Ohio in a walk, the Repugs will lose their House and Senate majorities, and hundreds of Repugs will lose their county seats and thousands of their patronage hacks will be out of work.

The party's very existence lies on being able to count the votes themselves. If they lose that, they lose power. If they lose power, they lose money. If they lose money, they lose everything.

Rot in Hell, GOP. You and your big-money operatives have hijacked much of Christianity, and once in power caused million of people to lose everything they worked their entire life for, and in the process you destroyed our Constitution.

If I were a Repug operative, I would be devoting every waking moment to my upcoming legal defense, deciding which bigger fish I can turn state's evidence on.

When you look at the known crimes Repug elected officials and operatives have committed coast to coast at every level of government: corruption, tax evasion, personally profiting from public positions, awarding contracts to campaign contributors, destruction of public records, sexual exploitation of children, election law violations, etc., and really there is no difference between the Republican Party and the Mafia.

Hopefully, the next President hires an Attorney General capable of seeing this and prosecutes the Repugs as a corrupt organization under the RICO statutes.




If so :patriot:

[mod mom]

11. PART 2: RESPONSE TO BRUNNER'S SURVEY OF BOES:

Thursday, January 24, 2008
Survey says. . .
Despite a directive by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner ordering all county Board of Elections members to respond to a survey about voting systems by a Friday deadline, Brunner's office has not received responses from 98 of the boards' 352 members as of today.

Jeff Ortega, a spokesman for Brunner, said it's unclear what legal or punitive action board members could face. The office's election division is calling tardy members -- which make up about 28 percent of all board members today, Ortega said, adding: "Just fill out the survey.''

Brunner's survey found 61 percent of Republican board members are not concerned about a scientific report last month that all of Ohio's voting systems "carry serious risks to voting integrity." About 71 percent of the Democratic respondents, however, said they are concerned about the study's findings.

The survey also reflects a split within county boards when asked if they wanted to keep touch-screen voting machines -- which Brunner recommends replacing. If funding is available, about 31 percent of all respondents favored switching from touch-screen to optical scan -- which uses paper ballots.

Of the optical scan counties, only 13 percent said they'd agree to counting ballots centrally instead of at the precinct level.

RESULTS AT LINK:

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/default.asp

[mod mom]

12. OH Dem Party Response:

OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 25, 2008

CONTACT: Todd Hoffman, (o) 614-221-6563 X109
Online Communications Director
Statement by Ohio Democratic Party Executive Director Doug Kelly regarding GOP Chairman Bob Bennett's Partisan Attacks on the Secretary of State. You may use all or part of the following:
"Fresh from his secret, closed-door meeting with Republican election workers, GOP Chairman Bob Bennett is lobbing unfounded accusations concerning, of all things, excessive partisanship. Unlike Bennett, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has been notably open and bipartisan in her approach to safeguarding the integrity of Ohio's elections, examining policy with an advisory group of Republicans and Democrats and even launching a series of public town hall meetings across the state."
"Surely, the Ohio Republican Party can find a more credible voice on election issues than Bob Bennett, a man who was let go from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections after his embarrassing tenure of incompetence and neglect. The Ohio Republican Party may long for the old days of Ken Blackwell and his partisan-driven administration, but the people of Ohio do not."

[Botany]

13. Jennifer is not going to let the parties control the BOEs and voting .....

.... The repubs have been fixing votes in this state for a long time.

The repubs now are in a special meetings to try to keep the scam going
on longer.

In 2004 I watched a republican precinct captian and her friends work w/
a republican vote challenger at the same table in Bexely 3 C or it might
have been 3 A ......

No more "training" of republican poll workers to help control the vote @ the precinct
level by the county and state GOP prior to the election .... no wonder they are
"screaming bloody murder."

BTW Jennifer gave Bennett a chance to have a public hearing about his job as the
head of Cuyahoga County's BOE .... open and in public and Bennett quit rather than
to have public hearings.