Same Day Registration and Vote-By Mail in Ohio Good For Obama?

It looks like the Democratic Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, of Ohio has helped create a wide open door to “vote-banking.” Unlike other types of electioneering efforts, vote-banking is not necessarily illegal. And in vote-by mail states like Washington and Oregon it is practically guarunteed.

The Obama campaign appears ready to take advantage of the situation, at least according to this article

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmJpgsrR27lwSUQ24_WSSrU0W-JwD92H8JE06

In Ohio, Republicans are clearly not pleased with same-day registration and voting and have not ruled out a lawsuit against Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s office.

“You have to wonder, when they look at what they consider a loophole with such excitement,” said Jason Mauk, the Ohio Republican Party’s executive director. “That would suggest manipulating the process, and I think opens the door to suspicion.”

The voting window, so far, is only being implemented in some counties — typically, urban areas or those with college campuses — leading Republicans to cry foul.

“The prospect of someone coming in with no ID and registering and voting is contrary to every sort of protection that legislators and lawmakers have built into this system for decades,” said Kevin DeWine, a Republican lawmaker who is poised to take over the state party after the election. “The processes and the law and the systems in our 88 counties are not equipped to handle same-day registration.”

People in Ohio can register without identification, but they have to show some sort of ID to vote.

State lawmakers accidentally made the window before the 2006 elections. Obama’s campaign is eager to take advantage of it this year.

“This is one of many ways we’ll be encouraging our supporters to skip the lines on Election Day and make sure their vote is cast early,” said Isaac Baker, an Obama spokesman.

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Could someone please explain…

File under, “I wonder what the press release says on this one?”

Although she still wants counties with touch-screen voting systems to switch to paper ballots this fall, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said yesterday that other changes she proposed for the November election aren’t likely.

The multiple-precinct vote centers that she initially had recommended be created statewide by this fall could be adopted by counties voluntarily instead and phased in elsewhere later, she said.

She also won’t insist that ballots be counted only at a central location in each county. Instead, she suggested that they could be counted unofficially in each precinct and then run through central scanners for the official tally.”