Ohioans live in a state that it is important that all new voters are welcomed and that all of their votes are accurately counted. We also live in a state that in the last election of 2004, our Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell (R), was eviscerated by the judge in his response over Blackwell’s new directive to suppress votes in Ohio. This is what the judge had to say to Secretary Blackwell, “The exigencies requiring the relief being ordered herein are due to the failure of the defendant to fulfill his duty not only to this Court, as its injunction directed him to do. The Proposed Directive remains…and is every bit as much in violation of HAVA. Blackwell apparently seeks to accomplish the same result in Ohio 2004 that occurred in Florida in 2000.”

There is no grey area in what the judge had to say about Secretary Blackwell’s tactics in 2004. Now we move forward to 2008, Boehner (R) initially sent a letter to Mukasey, when he didn’t respond Boehner directly contacted President George W. Bush. He wants Bush to get involved with the 200,000 new voters to make them either verify information or cast provisional ballots, which we all know are oftentimes thrown out.

In response to this possible suppression of new voters, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and five congressional lawmakers, urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey not to intervene in Ohio’s voter registration dispute where Republicans have challenged the integrity of 200,000 new voter registration forms.

“The eyes of the nation are once again on Ohio in the Nov. 4 election in this critical election,” Brown and the congressional Democrats said in a letter sent to Mukasey. “We have confidence in the work that is being done by Ohio’s bipartisan group of election officials and by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. We respectfully request that you refrain from taking any action absent more compelling evidence than partisan political requests. “According to testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, Republican members of Congress exerted pressure on the Justice Department two years ago to bring an indictment in a public corruption case against Democratic officials before the November election so as to influence its outcome. To his credit, the U.S. Attorney in question resisted this pressure. You should do no less.”

“Unless action is taken by the [Justice] Department immediately, thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of names whose information has not been verified through the [Help America Vote Act] procedures mandated by Congress will remain on the voter rolls during the Nov. 4 election. “There is a significant risk if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted. Given the Election Day is less than two weeks away, immediate action by the Department is not only warranted, but also crucial,” Boehner said in a letter to Bush.

On Friday, The Public Record reported that Bush took the unprecedented step of asking his Attorney General to launch an investigation. At issue is a federal law – the Help America Vote Act, which was passed when Republicans dominated Congress in 2002 – that requires states to verify the eligibility of voters.

The Supreme Court’s decision vacated a temporary restraining order that had directed the Secretary to institute additional procedures under Section 303 of HAVA. Boehner then sought, via the letter to Bush, to have Mukasey force Brunner to comply with HAVA’s requirements.

In a letter to Mukasey, Brown and U.S. Representatives Marcy Kaptur, Tim Ryan, Zack T. Space, Betty Sutton, and Charles Wilson, said, “we are concerned that complaints about the administration of HAVA in Ohio are designed to reduce the number of legitimate votes that are cast and counted in our state.” “It is hard to find another explanation for complaints that are filed with only a few days remaining before the election,” the lawmakers wrote. “To comply with HAVA, former Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, instituted a voter registration database, known by the acronym SWVRD, in 2006. The State continues to maintain the SWVRD in accordance with federal and state law.

“No complaints concerning its implementation or operation were received by the Secretary of State’s office until the Ohio Republican Party initiated litigation on September 26, 2008. The lawsuit sought to compel the Ohio Secretary of State to implement new standards for the SWVRD – standards that are not required under either HAVA or Ohio law.”

It is unknown if Mukasey will pursue federal intervention or not. This could potentially cause serious problems in many of the polling precincts; that in the past, have had long lines to vote. Which was caused by an insufficient number of voting machines, in heavily democratic areas, in previous elections – they have made some improvements on that in the last election cycle of 2006.