OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: From her first day on the job in January 2007 as Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner has acted as if she was bullet proof. To those who found themselves at odds with her proposals or directives in one way or another, she has given no quarter in using the authority of her position as chief election officer more as a political bludgeon than a tool to heal the divides that have opened between her, local boards of elections and the officials that run them and other stakeholders in Ohio's system of elections.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Eric Brown Tuesday dismissed on procedural grounds a case brought by the Union County Commissioners challenging the authority of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to force them and other counties who use touch screen voting machines to also provide a paper ballot to any voter who requests one on March 4th, the date of Ohio’s primary election.

The bellwether case, the first by an Ohio county that challenges Brunner’s authority as elections chief to force Ohio's 88 county boards of elections to have available by November elections paper ballots for any voter who asks for one, is of special interest to the 53 counties who will use electronic touch-screen voting machines as their primary system of voting in a fortnight.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: US District Judge Kathleen O’Malley imposed a permanent injunction Tuesday against enforcement of certain provisions of Ohio’s 2006 election law that imposed curbs on voter registration drives she ruled violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

Because they impede the purpose and intent of these statutes, O’Malley declared them unenforceable.

The case, Project Vote v. Blackwell, originally filed in May 2006 on behalf of nonprofit groups who were conducting voter registration drives in Ohio, challenged several provisions of Ohio House Bill 3, enacted in 2006, as well as the Secretary of State’s implementation of those provisions.

In a phone interview with ePluribus Media's Ohio News Bureau, Renee Paradis, counsel at the Democracy Program at The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University of Law, said that the groups who brought the lawsuit were Acorn, Project Vote, People for the American Way, Common Cause and the Community of Faith Assemblies Church of Cleveland.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: In the week since Ohio Governor Ted Strickland gave his dazzling but dubious State of the State speech last Wednesday about his plans to create new jobs and commandeer control of the state’s education system, supporters and critics of the proposed $1.7 bond package have been busy working to give it liftoff or shoot it down before takeoff.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: After one year in office, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland used his State of the State speech Wednesday to readjust the state’s sails, hoping to generate enough wind power through a new jobs program, increased investment in infrastructure and the reorganization of primary and secondary education that will give high school seniors a leg up on college to steer the ship of state to calmer seas and more prosperous shores.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: Even though Ohio is not among the 24 states whose collective primaries are called Super Tuesday, which some say constitute a national primary, voting news related to the Buckeye State’s primary on March 4th is in the headlines.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: The first financial fallout from Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s tie-breaking vote last December took place Thursday, when Cuyahoga County commissioners reluctantly doled out $1.5 million to lease 15 machines that will tabulate and count votes centrally instead of in precincts, as has been standard practice in all previous elections.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: The label “battleground state” generally refers to a state whose Electoral College votes can make or break a race for the White House. Ohio, the nation’s 7th largest state with 20 such votes, has been so designated in previous election cycles and is predicted to again defend that title this year.

This year the moniker "battleground state" may more aptly describe the breakout of intra-state battles taking shape over the budget, voting systems and energy. These battles are creating fissures between Republicans, who still rule the roost at the legislature and office of auditor, and Democrats, who for the first time in 16 years control the executive branch and offices of attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: BREAKING NEWS: The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Ohio filed a lawsuit against state election officials in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio late Thursday, challenging the use of unequal, inaccurate and inadequate voting technology in Ohio’s most populous county by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Ohio Treasury Cordray Launches SaveNOW to Change Citizens’ Savings Habits

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: With winter winds blowing a chill across Ohio, and the prospect by many reputable economists that the next recession is waiting in the wings to make its cameo appearance, bringing with it more financial heartache to a state that has yet to recover the last recession of 2001, the timely announcement by Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray that he’ll plunk down $25 million in state investment dollars to help Ohioans save more and earn higher interests rates on their savings, is a warm breeze in an otherwise frosty environment.