By Andrew L. Jaffee

More problems have crept up in Barack Obama’s run for the presidency — this time in Ohio. It would help clarify matters to hear Barack Obama’s stance on voter registration irregularities in the Buckeye State. First, “A federal court ruled tonight that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner violated federal election laws by not taking adequate steps to validate the identity of newly registered voters.” Second, in same the case, the judge’s, “ruling cited the questionable activity of ACORN, a group that has registered thousands of Ohioans.”

According to the Columbus Dispatch, regarding Ohio’s secretary of state:

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner [Democrat] made a serious blunder by failing to give county elections boards the names of new voters whose registration records don’t match state and federal data. She should comply with a federal court order to release the information within a week instead of appealing the case to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, as she has said she intends to do.

By trying to prevent county boards of elections from investigating discrepancies in new voter registrations, she is putting partisan considerations ahead of the public interest in fair elections. And in doing that, the Democrat is inviting a direct comparison to her Republican predecessor, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who undercut his credibility as an impartial election arbiter because of his partisan decisions leading up to the 2004 presidential election.

In addition to discrediting herself, Brunner’s attempt to withhold the data undermines the integrity of the election system.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the Ohio Republican Party, Judge George C. Smith of U.S. District Court in Columbus said on Thursday that federal law requires that states verify addresses and other identifying data of new registrants and share with the bipartisan county boards the names of people with mismatched data. Brunner released the number of cases of mismatched data but not the names of registrants. County boards of elections need those names to resolve any discrepancies.

Smith’s common-sense order would not have been necessary had the secretary of state simply fulfilled her responsibility to supply these details to local elections officials. Instead, she let partisanship guide her decision to withhold the information. She apparently is afraid that the state GOP will use the list of registration discrepancies for a wholesale challenge of new registrations, many of them from people likely to vote Democratic. …

Regarding ACORN’s involvement in this voter registration mess, the Dispatch states:

… And the fact is that some registrations likely are illegitimate. Smith’s ruling cited the questionable activity of ACORN, a group that has registered thousands of Ohioans.

The Cuyahoga County Elections Board is investigating about 50 suspicious registrations collected by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Registration cards supplied by ACORN had duplicate names, which might indicate that paid canvassers shared names to reach their collection quotas.

ACORN officials admitted to Cuyahoga County officials that their group lacks the staff and internal controls to catch every case of deception. …

Ohio’s secretary of state is obviously tied to Obama as she is a Democrat. Obama is also tied to ACORN, according to the Washington Independent:

… In his days as a community organizer, Obama worked with ACORN. According to The Washington Post, his campaign made an $800,000 payment to an affiliate of the organization for “get out the vote” operations during the primaries. ACORN has endorsed Obama for president. …

If Obama is indeed the candidate for “change,” then it would be forthright for him to address these issues, or end up looking like a presidential aspirant who is trying to steal an election.

See related Obama coverage:

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• Obama tries to divert attention from ACORN voter fraud investigation
• New ACORN Scandal: Nepotistic Embezzlement
• FBI investigating ACORN voter fraud; Obama indisputably linked to ACORN
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