Ohio Attorney General Files Motion for Jennifer Brunner Saying Wait until 2008 Presidential Election is Over to Open Case on Voter Fraud, Suppression in 2004 Election

OhioNewsBureau 

COLUMBUS, OHIO: The Ohio Attorney General, filing a motion Monday on behalf of Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner opposing a motion to lift the current stay in the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association lawsuit of 2006 alleging voter fraud and suppression of certain groups, argued allowing plaintiff attorneys to embark on a new round of discovery now, with less than three months before the November presidential elections in a battleground state that expects an 80 percent voter turnout and could again decide who becomes president, would become a severe and unnecessary distraction from the collective efforts of all election officials who are “focused exclusively on preparation for the 2008 presidential election.”

In an exclusive telephone interview conducted with the OhioNewsBureau last week and arranged with the help of a spokesman from the AG’s communication staff, assistant attorney general Richard N. Coglianese, who has represented Brunner previously on other issues, said he would file a motion Monday but did not reveal the nature of it. 

Monday was the deadline for motions to be filed with Federal District Court Judge Algernon Marbley, in whose court the lawsuit resides moribund due to the stay put on it in April 2007, in response to a motion filed by Clifford O. Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis, plaintiff attorneys, to lift the stay and allow them to pursue discovery, including the collection of various documents and emails from Karl Rove and other individuals and groups who they say applied voter suppression tactics in 2004 and are poised to do so again this year. 

Although the lawsuit now lists Brunner as a defendant, the Secretary of State in office when the lawsuit was first filed in 2006 was Kenneth J. Blackwell, a two term Republican from Cincinnati who also served as co-chair for the Bush-Cheney campaign and who some election-integrity advocates accused of helping to rig the election in Ohio for George W. Bush, who won the state and a second term in the White House by fewer than 119,000 votes. 

When interviewed last week by the OhioNewsBureau, Conglianese confirmed that he, and a legal intern from the office of secretary of state, had a telephone conference call recently with Arnebeck and Stephen Spoonamore, a data security expert and acknowledged Republican, who says election irregularities of the magnitude seen in 2004 should have been investigated already and very well could occur again, given the stealth nature of the Matrix-style cybergate election system Rover and long-time Republican IT handyman Mike Connell constructed in Ohio and other states that election officials like Brunner and Ohio's 88 county board of elections have little if any idea is at work beneath their fingertips. Much like a fire chief ready to direct firemen to the next fire, Conglianese said he was leading a task force of approximately 40 lawyers from the AG’s office who have received training in election law matters and stand ready to apply their skills and the resources of the agency should they be needed come Election Day on November 4^th. 

As filed by Arnebeck and Fitrakis, who were joined by individual voters and three voters' rights groups, the summary of the case is that then-Secretary of State Blackwell allocated election resources in a racially discriminatory manner and instituted racially discriminatory procedures for provisional voting, purging voters from the statewide voter registration database, and maintaining the chain of custody of ballots. 

The complaint alleged that these actions led to the dilution and/or cancellation of plaintiffs' vote due to ballot cancellation and tampering, long poll lines, mechanical difficulties with voting machines, and unclear precinct boundaries. The complaint claims that plaintiffs reasonably fear these problems will recur in the November, 2006, election, and asks the court to appoint a special master to perform Blackwell's election administration duties in that election. 

For some, the bromide that history not learned will be repeated demands that the stay be lifted so discovery can proceed in order to avoid 2008 becoming another Ground Hog Day for 2004. For others, like Brunner, the state’s chief elections officer who is staking her re-election in 2010 on how the November election goes, looking to the past is a wide-eyed political goose chase that can give Republicans more fuel than they already have to cook her goose in 2010, when Democrats hope to gain control of the state apportionment board by retaining her office and that of governor. 

For Arnebeck, who says Rove and his cyber henchmen are again in place to skew a tight race to John McCain, the Republican candidate, time is precious and running out to unmask what he says will happen again in 2008 when exit polling doesn’t match up with vote totals. But this time, Arnebeck says, the show-stopper rationale for why the reliable science of exit polling will not jive with the tabulated vote will contend that people will conceal their racism by telling exit pollsters one thing but voting the opposite way. A similar explanation was given by Republicans in 2004, when exit polling showed Democratic candidate John Kerry to be the big winner of the state and the presidency but final vote totals, many of which were tabulated by touch-screen machines, put Bush in the winner’s column. 

Asked to comment on the AG’s motion to oppose his motion to lift the stay, Arnebeck, writing in an email to ONB, said, “We have no interest in pursuing, at this critical time, matters that are not essential to assuring the integrity of the 2008 election.”

Continuing with more forceful language, Arnebeck said: “We are pursuing the organized gangsters, led by Karl Rove, who are now poised to apply the same voter suppression tactics, corporate funded attack ads, and vote destruction and vote flipping tactics they used to steal 2000 and 2004 elections.  We would agree to an interim relief from the stay which was limited to that purpose.”

Brunner is holding to her now-established mantra that the only direction she can go is forward, and that looking back will both distract for the upcoming elections and tap limited resources needed to assure the integrity of the November election. 

Taking plaintiff attorney’s argument that they can resume activity in the case without disrupting the important work of state elections officials, Brunner disagreed. In his motion to oppose, Conglianese wrote: “She has limited personnel who are charged with elections administration. These individuals have already worked with her on issuing 60 new directives for 2008. They are busily working on others which will be issued before the November general election. Their attention is best served working on this instead of aiding defense counsel on charges concerning the 2004 election. Likewise, the Secretary’s statutory counsel, the Ohio Attorney General, also has limited resources. Counsel for Secretary Brunner have been busy representing their client in this Court as well as others in Franklin County. Their attention is also best served dealing with issues concerning the 2008 election and other matters of importance to the Secretary.” 

In closing, Coglianese said plaintiffs have “simply failed to address why it is necessary to begin litigation at this point instead of waiting three months.” He said Brunner, a former Common Please Court Judge, is “cognizant of the fact that parties to litigation should be allowed to conduct appropriate discovery, there is no reason to start discovery at this time.” 

He said the most important obligation Secretary Brunner and the boards of elections have at this point is to properly prepare for the November general election. “Since this case is already stayed, it should remain so for the near term.”

John Michael Spinelli is a former Ohio Statehouse government and political reporter and business columnist. He now serves as the OhioNews Bureau Chief for ePluribus Media Journal. Find ONB archives here.
Photo credits: (c) 2008 AnHarris, istockphoto

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