A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 last night in favor of Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to put on hold an order sought by the Ohio Republican Party involving information about new voters and concerns about potential fraud.

The three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Brunner is not required to provide county elections boards with the names of voters whose personal information does not match state motor-vehicle or federal Social Security records, as ordered Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge George C. Smith of Columbus.

Brunner had sought an emergency order delaying Smith's order, and the appeals court agreed with Brunner that federal law does not require her to provide the names and that the Nov. 4 election is too close for major policy changes.

The panel noted that the process of matching voter information with state and federal records has been in place since 2007, and that the details about mismatches are available to counties on individual voter records, even if not in one list.

The panel scolded the state GOP for waiting until just before the election to challenge the process, saying, "(The party) itself created the sudden rush for determination, and we are not prepared to reward it for forcing all parties into this unenviable position."

Representatives of the Republican Party could not be reached last night.

Brunner said the ruling "halted another partisan lawsuit in Ohio," but she added that Ohio has "multi-layered, bipartisan systems in place to process and verify every new voter registration. Ohioans and the nation can be confident in our elections system."

Judge Richard Allen Griffin dissented, saying the three-judge panel should not have acted so quickly and that Brunner's "lack of concern for the integrity of the elections process is astounding and deeply disturbing."

The ruling came as Republicans have been ratcheting up the rhetoric about alleged voter fraud in Ohio, with John McCain facing the prospect of losing the presidency if he doesn't carry Ohio.

The complaints reached the highest levels of the McCain team yesterday, with national campaign manager Rick Davis raising "serious" questions about decisions by Brunner, a Democrat.

The campaign also launched an online ad slamming Democrat Barack Obama and his ties to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, a group active in signing up voters in Ohio and other key battleground states.

Most of the GOP complaints have focused on allegations of voter-registration fraud and assertions that groups such as ACORN are peppering registration rolls with phony voters.

Meanwhile, the Greene County sheriff backed off an investigation of new voters in his county yesterday after Democrats complained that it was a blatant attempt to discourage voting, especially among black college students.

Franklin County officials have not reported any significant problems, although Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said yesterday that he is investigating two complaints. One involves a woman from Colorado who called to say local relatives associated with ACORN were registering and voting improperly; the other centers on an Ohio State University student who reportedly registered with a phony name and cast a ballot.

Republicans have cast doubt on the legality of "Golden Week," an overlap between the start of early absentee voting on Sept. 30 and last Monday's registration deadline, during which Ohioans could register and immediately cast an absentee ballot. But the Ohio Supreme Court, controlled 7-0 by Republicans, backed Brunner's interpretation that state law allowed both.

In a conference call yesterday with reporters nationwide, Davis argued that Brunner's decisions plus her advice to counties not to allow observers of in-person absentee votes are "dumbfounding."

"Brunner has single-handedly, I think, mangled the election laws in Ohio in a way that is incredible," Davis said.

Brunner did not respond to a request for comment left with her spokesman, but she previously has defended her decisions as mostly upholding what the Republican-controlled legislature passed in updates to state election laws.

In response to the attacks from Republicans, Democrats fought back yesterday with criticism of what they called GOP "voter suppression."

It was directed mostly at Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer, who caused a stir Thursday by asking the local elections board for records of all 302 people who registered and voted during "Golden Week."

Fischer canceled his request yesterday after Democrats said he was acting without evidence as part of an "ugly partisan fishing expedition of unprecedented proportions."

mniquette@dispatch.com

ajohnson@dispatch.com

---

Q&A: FRAUD REPORTS

Q. What are the allegations?
A. That the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, and other groups or individuals have submitted bogus voter registrations, and there
is the potential for vote fraud -especially when Ohioans were able to register and immediately cast an absentee ballot during the beginning of early absentee voting from Sept. 30 through last Monday.
Q. Does anybody have proof that actual fraud has occurred?
A. Allegations have been made in Cleveland and elsewhere of duplicate or fictitious registrations, and complaints are being investigated, including two in Franklin County. In Cleveland, an ACORN official reportedly has admitted that the group can't stop all fraud. 
But no charges have been filed, and only a handful of actual voter-fraud cases have been prosecuted in the past.
Q. How are new voter registrations checked in Ohio?
A. Counties enter the information from new voters into their computer systems, and it is uploaded to a state database to check for duplicates
from other counties.
The personal information also is matched against state motor-vehicle and federal Social Security records.
Q. What if the motor-vehicle and Social Security records don't match the voter registration?
A. A notation is made on the voter's record in the state database, but counties are  not sent a list of mismatches and can only access them by reviewing voter records one by one in the database. An appeals court is reviewing a judge's order that the counties must be given a list of the mismatches.
Q. What can counties do once they get the mismatches?
A. Perhaps very little before the election. Elections officials, especially in large counties with thousands of new voters, say they don't have the
staff, time or money to investigate with all the other work that must be done to prepare for the election.
Elections experts also warn about causing greater problems by giving officials more duties or changing the rules right before an election, even
if the intentions are good.
Q. Can county elections officials check new voter registrations on their own?
A. Yes, and they do. A card is sent by nonforwardable mail to each new voter. If the card is returned as undeliverable,
the registration is flagged for further investigation.
Q. Which political party is responsible for checking?
A. Both..Ohio has a bipartisan system, meaning an  equal number of Republicansat Democrats at the county
level handle all aspects of running the election.

-Mark Niquette
mniquette@dispatch.com