in those five states Democrats are now in a more advantageous position when it comes to the interpretation and administration of election law — a development that could benefit Barack Obama if any of those states are closely contested on Election Day. Secretaries of state give Dem firewall

In anticipation of a photo-finish presidential election, Democrats have built an administrative firewall designed to protect their electoral interests in five of the most important battleground states.

The bulwark consists of control of secretary of state offices in five key states — Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio — where the difference between victory and defeat in the 2004 presidential election was no more than 120,000 votes in any one of them.


With a Democrat now in charge of the offices, which oversee and administer their state’s elections, the party is better positioned than in the previous elections to advance traditional Democratic interests —such as increasing voter registration and boosting turnout — rather than Republican priorities such as stamping out voter fraud.

Perhaps more important, in those five states Democrats are now in a more advantageous position when it comes to the interpretation and administration of election law — a development that could benefit Barack Obama if any of those states are closely contested on Election Day.

The effort began in 2006 when a group of liberal California activists created an independent 527 group designed to elect secretaries of state.

The Secretary of State Project ran independent ads of its own and ensured that donors — many of whom were affiliated with Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy fundraisers that channels money to liberal causes across the country — knew which candidates deserved donations.

They were frustrated by the ballot-counting actions of former Florida Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris in 2000, and former Ohio Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell in 2004, both former campaign chairmen for George W. Bush who became prominent electoral boogeymen to the left.

“We were tired of Republican manipulation of elections,” said Michael Kieschnick, a founder of the group who is also the president of Working Assets, a company that provides credit cards and mobile phone services to progressive organizations.

“It seemed like lots of decisions were made by people who were pretty clearly political operatives.”

According to the group, it raised and bundled $500,000 for the 2006 races.

The group says it spent $30,000 on ads in Ohio, went on the radio in New Mexico and ran cable ads in Minnesota. In all seven target states — which also included unsuccessful campaigns in Colorado and Michigan — the Democratic candidate received a larger proportion of their money from out-of-state donors than the Republican, according to a Politico analysis.

This year, the project is supporting Democratic candidates in four more states: Missouri, Montana, Oregon and West Virginia.

Secretary of state races still come with a much lower price tag than higher profile state races, but in recent years the increased scrutiny has upped the cost.

In Colorado, the 2002 candidates for secretary of state raised less than $120,000 combined. Four years later, Republican Michael Coffman raised about $450,000 while Democrat Ken Gordon raised almost $600,000.

In Michigan, the heavily self-funded Republican incumbent Terri Lynn Land outraised Democratic long-shot Carmella Sabaugh by a 4-1 ratio, but the margin would have been greater if not for the almost $30,000 Sabaugh received from out-of-state donors.

“It was very uplifting to know that a progressive group is really interested in getting secretary of states. It was very rewarding to see that,” she said of the project. “I think they actually contacted me.”

Along with Kieschnick, who gave the maximum $3,400 to Sabaugh’s underdog campaign, the list of donors included California venture capitalists (and Democracy Alliance stalwarts) Debra and Andrew Rappaport and a Utah investor named Arthur Lipson.

An alumnus of Wall Street, Lipson gave more than $25,000 directly to the 527 and also donated to individual secretary of state candidates in Colorado, Minnesota and Ohio.

“I would’ve given zero dollars to secretary of state races without the Secretary of State Project,” he told Politico.

Potential contributors who visit the site can either give directly to the group or send money to candidates through ActBlue, an online tool for liberal candidates. In 2006, ActBlue delivered more than $24,000 in small donations to New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s campaign, about 7 percent of her overall budget.

Republicans have recently criticized Herrera first for hiring the son-in-law of Rep. Tom Udall, the Democratic Senate candidate, as director of the state Bureau of Elections, and then replacing him with a former Udall chief of staff.

But the biggest lightning rod, for both cash and controversy, has been Ohio.

In 2002, Kenneth Blackwell raised almost $1.6 million for his race while his Democratic challenger raised about $400,000. Four years later, Democrat Jennifer Brunner — who won the race — and her opponent each raised more than $2 million.

The Brunner candidacy emerged as a small cause célèbre on the left: While only 20 percent of her funding came from out of state, 12 out of the 18 individuals who gave the maximum $10,000 — a list that included Teresa Heinz Kerry — hailed from outside Ohio.

“It was extremely helpful in raising people’s awareness on the importance of having good people occupy the office of secretary of state,” Brunner said. “I received significant support from the SOS Project, which helped me toward the election.”

Democrats keyed in on Ohio after Blackwell purged the rolls of longtime nonvoters, issued decisions that limited which provisional ballots would be counted, and allowed what some saw as suspiciously long lines in Democratic areas on Election Day. Bush won the state that year by just over 100,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast.

Blackwell disputes the claims that his actions were politically motivated and said the elements of the left that accused him of election theft were attempting “to exploit a situation where most people have superficial knowledge of how elections are managed.”

Likewise, Brunner has spent the past several months embroiled in a series of legal battles with Republicans.

On Sept. 29, the day before early voting began, the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed her decision to allow residents to register and vote on the same day, during the week-long window after early voting in the state begins, and before the voter registration period ends.

Republicans had objected to the window, which they said would open up the floodgates for one-stop voter fraud.

On Oct. 2, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down her directive regarding 1 million absentee ballot applications that the McCain campaign had issued: The campaign had included an extra, unnecessary checkbox on the form, and Brunner had ruled that a failure to check the box — even if the registrant signed the form — meant the application could be rejected.

The court said Brunner’s interpretation, ostensibly to prevent voter fraud, served "no vital purpose or public interest."

The next day, a local Republican official filed a lawsuit to allow outside observers at early voting sites — Brunner had insisted that the election workers already in place would provide enough of a check.

“Secretary Brunner ran on a platform that called for absolute independence come election time,” former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro said on a conference call organized by the McCain campaign. Petro also criticized Blackwell for excessive partisanship in 2004. “She’s issuing directives that demonstrate a partisan tilt.”

Earlier this week, Brunner called on the Ohio attorney general to investigate get-out-the-vote calls made by Republicans in 19 Ohio counties, which some voters had confused as calls from their local election board.

When asked about Brunner, Kieschnick was careful to qualify his praise. “Our view would be that Jennifer Brunner made decisions that opened up elections to more people,” he said. “It’s never quite what you want, but by and large she’s so much better than Ken Blackwell.”

“I think you can’t separate partisan attacks from elections,” said Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller. “I view it as one of my primary responsibilities to be as objective as I can. … My goal is to assure the public that we have integrity in the system.”

Miller’s office recently made headlines when it raided a local office of ACORN, the community organization, to investigate allegations of voter registration fraud. “I’d like to emphasize that I think the system in Nevada works,” he said. “Although there are claims of registration fraud that we’re hoping to substantiate. … I don’t think we’ve seen any evidence that this is going to translate into voter fraud at the polls.”