Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien is telling the presidential campaigns in Ohio that if their out-of-state staff members are just passing through for the Nov. 4 election with no plans to remain, they shouldn't vote in the state, either.

O'Brien has spoken to attorneys for both campaigns and asked election officials to review the residency status of John McCain's and Barack Obama's staff members, as well as those of other get-out-the-vote groups, who have few Ohio ties but registered and requested absentee ballots.

"One thing that is crystal-clear is the law -- if you are a temporary resident or a visitor, you are not entitled to register to vote and you're not entitled to vote," O'Brien, a Republican, told The Dispatch yesterday.

He recommended that anyone with a questionable registration from those groups destroy their absentee ballots and steer clear of the polls. "There is no debate. Ohio law says it in black and white."

The comments came on a day with a new flurry of election-related news:

• The Republican fundraiser who sued Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in the Ohio Supreme Court dropped his case. The lawsuit demanded that Brunner set aside absentee ballots from voters registered this year to check whether they are among the estimated 200,000 whose personal information does not match data in state and federal records.

Ohio Republican Chairman Robert T. Bennett said he's meeting with Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers today to negotiate a solution to the dispute, but a spokesman for Brunner insisted it is not a settlement meeting.

• U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner asked the Justice Department to force Brunner to comply with federal law and check mismatched records. The West Chester Republican's office said the U.S. attorney general has the authority to order Brunner to enforce the law. The request was signed by most of the Ohio GOP congressional delegation, including central Ohio Reps. Pat Tiberi, Deborah Pryce and David L. Hobson.

• Brunner put her full Web site back up yesterday after taking part of it down Monday because of still-undisclosed "security breaches." Gov. Ted Strickland also condemned reported death threats against Brunner and her family.

• A federal court hearing is set for Thursday on a request to prevent the state from enforcing its law requiring voters to show identification at the polls, or at least not require the homeless to show ID.

The lawsuit, initially filed in 2006 by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, also seeks an order spelling out and requiring the same treatment in each county of provisional ballots, which are held for 10 days to verify voter eligibility.

O'Brien's comments about campaign staffers' residency came after a liberal group filed an election complaint alleging that members of McCain's campaign were no different than out-of-state Obama supporters accused of improperly registering and voting here.

O'Brien already was investigating 12 people involved with the group Vote From Home who registered and have cast or requested absentee ballots. All list their address as the same Brownlee Avenue house on the East Side.

The Vote from Home members, who came to Columbus to register new voters, are from out of state and have no apparent intention of remaining here after the election -- raising questions about whether they meet legal residency requirements to vote.

But Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio.org, noted that at least three McCain staff members could fit that category and argued that no one should be prosecuted.

"I don't think that any of this constitutes voter-registration fraud. This has been going on for a long time," Rothenberg said. "I think it's part of a PR ploy to create a problem and create hysteria."

Matthew Damschroder, deputy director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said the ProgressOhio complaint will be reviewed and, if it merits further investigation, "will be forwarded to the prosecutor immediately."

Kevin DeWine, deputy chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, defended both McCain and Obama campaign staff members who are working full time in Ohio, saying they are paying taxes and rent and "have every right to vote in this election."

"That's entirely different from a group of out-of-state college students who shacked up in a house temporarily with no other reason for being here than to cast an illegal ballot," DeWine said.

But O'Brien sees no difference between the Brownlee house residents and campaign staff members who will leave Ohio once the election is over. "Everyone will be treated equally, whichever side of the fence you're on."

O'Brien said investigators will check where spouses and children live and where the newly registered voters have mortgages, bank accounts and driver's licenses, among other things, to determine how serious they are about calling Ohio home.

Both campaigns' Ohio spokesmen -- Paul Lindsay for McCain and Isaac Baker for Obama -- are among the out-of-staters who've registered in Ohio.

State law defines residency as a fixed habitation "to which, whenever the person is absent, the person has the intention of returning." But the statute also says: "A person shall not be considered to have gained a residence in any county of this state into which the person comes for temporary purposes only, without the intention of making such county the permanent place of abode."

Jon Seaton, McCain's regional campaign manager in Columbus, said there is a difference between eligible voters living in Ohio and fraudulent registrations.

"Unlike the thousands of questionable voter registrations submitted by Barack Obama and his allies, it is clear that our staff is legally registered," Seaton said.

Said Aaron Pickrell, Obama's Ohio state director: "In this historic election with unprecedented voter participation, we are fully committed to the integrity of the voting process."

Franklin County officials also are investigating members of at least two other groups formed to register Ohio voters. O'Brien's office is investigating as many as nine Vote Today Ohio supporters who all registered to vote and 17 from a group called Drop Everything and Come to Ohio.

Meanwhile, one legal challenge ended yesterday and another might be brewing on what should be done when personal information from newly registered voters doesn't match motor-vehicle or Social Security records.

David Myhal of New Albany sued Brunner in the Ohio Supreme Court last week seeking an order that Brunner direct election boards not to process absentee ballots unless they first check mismatches for voter eligibility.

Myhal voluntarily withdrew the case yesterday, saying he didn't want to be the focus. Bennett said he asked Myhal to withdraw it to pursue a settlement.

Boehner asked the Justice Department on Monday to force Brunner to comply with federal law and check the mismatched records. Brunner argues the law only requires doing the match -- and that a mismatch alone can't be used to disqualify a vote.

She also argues that the state's bipartisan election system works well to weed out voting fraud. Republicans say any available fraud-detection tool should be used.

Dispatch Public Affairs Editor Darrel Rowland and reporter Jack Torry contributed to this story.

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