Secretary of State

From the Columbus Dispatch, three staffers for Vote Today Ohio have plead guilty to illegally registering and voting in Columbus during the so-called Golden Week - a seven day period when Ohio residents could register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time.

This will likely be a footnote it what was a monumental disaster perpetrated by the Ohio Secretary of State and supporters of Barack Obama.  But it highlights three important realities:

• The extreme vulnerability of Election Day Registration
• The enormous influence one highly partisan election official can have on the process
• The need to invest in ballot security programs

For those who have forgotten, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner unilaterally re-interpreted Ohio Election statutes governing the overlap of the voter registration deadline and the start of early vote to create a de-facto seven day window of Election Day Registration whereby residents could fill out an application and immediately cast a vote.

She ordered the unprepared and understaffed County Election Boards to set-up voting centers that would ensure a massive turnout. Then Brunner amazingly banned all pollwatchers from the vote centers.  Chaos without witnesses.

Many County Election Boards balked and the Ohio Republican Party unsuccessfully sued to stop her, but it was too late.

From the beginning, stories of fraud and misconduct were widely reported.  The Obama Campaign, ACORN, Vote Today Ohio, and Vote From Home were all linked to voter fraud during Golden Week. See here, here, here, here here here here here here here here 

But, as is the case when elections aren’t close, Obama’s victory overshadowed the widespread fraud of Election 2008.  But it happened in Ohio and it happened on a much larger scale then what is being reflected by three guilty pleas.  It will be interesting to see if any of the other groups named above will face similar charges.

This should be a wake up call to any state that is considering EDR without significant safeguards in place,  any political party that isn’t heavily investing in Secretary of State races, and any campaign that doesn’t have a ballot security program. 

The three who plead guilty are:

Amy Little, 50, of New York. (Ms. Little was a consultant for Congressman John Hall (D-NY) until news broke in October that she illegally voted).

Daniel Hausman, 32, of New York.

Yolanda Hipplesteele, 30, of California.

crossposted at www.electionjournal.org

Quin Hilyer doesn't think Hillary Clinton should be confirmed as Secretary of State, for a variety of reasons.  Others suggest the emolument clause of the Constitution or the Clinton's foreign entanglements could create problems during Senator Clinton's confirmation hearing.  Maybe, but I doubt it.  Most of the potential problems seem basically unrelated to the role of Secretary of State, or have been addressed long ago.  Perhaps more relevantly, relationships matter and by all accounts Hillary Clinton has good relationships with her Senate colleagues.  I very much doubt her fellow Senators (especially in a large majority Democratic Senate) will play hardball against a colleague.

But there's a more interesting aspect to Hillary Clinton's appointment as Secretary of State.  Consider...

• Hillary Clinton's major interest and specialty has been a domestic policy: universal health care.
• Hillary Clinton's 1993 health care reform was a famous failure.
• Universal health care will be one of the top, immediate priorities of the Obama administration.
• Obama has appointed Hillary Clinton to a foreign policy position.
• This will take Hillary Clinton entirely out of the picture - even out of the country - during the upcoming legislative fight over health care.

Hillary Clinton is a very polarizing figure on the subject of health care.  It may not have been a major factor, but I doubt this went unconsidered by either Obama or Clinton.