Ohio's election is so broken that President Bush should tell the Justice Department to intervene, a congressional leader says.

House Minority Leader John Boehner of suburban Cincinnati asked Bush today to "direct'' the Justice Department to order Ohio officials to enforce the 2002 election law known as the Help America Vote Act.

"Unless action is taken immediately, thousands, if not tens of thousands, of names whose information has not been verified through the HAVA procedures mandated by Congress will remain on voter roles during the Nov. 4, 2008, election; and there is a significant risk, if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted," Boehner told the president.

Earlier this week, the West Chester Republican urged U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to order Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to comply with the federal law.

"Given that election day is less than two weeks away, immediate action by the department is not only warranted, but crucial,'' Boehner wrote Bush. "Accordingly, I strongly urge you to direct Attorney General Mukasey and the Department of Justice to act.''

Kevin DeWine, deputy chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said he supports the effort to get Bush involved in the matter.

"We are pursing all remedies we can possibly find," he said. "I support any effort to get this information out. What we're talking about is critical information that goes to the heart of voter confidence."

At a morning press conference, DeWine also continued to call for Brunner to turn over the 200,000 mismatched names to county elections boards. GOP attorneys met with secretary of state's office attorneys Wednesday, but Brunner this week told county elections officials they cannot reject voters based solely on discrepancies from verifying new voter registrations.

"As far as I'm concerned, the secretary of state seems to be engaged in an effort to conceal election fraud," DeWine said.

He said he also is calling on the U.S. attorney's office to investigate a reported security breach in the secretary of state's office. Brunner said on Monday that undefined security breaches forced her to temporarily shut down much of the office's Web site.

"This is a federal election, and if this is a breach as Jennifer Brunner claims, then we need to investigate every angle," DeWine said. "What information was compromised? How did they break in?"

Asked if it's time to find a way to take politics out of the secretary of state's office, DeWine said, "I have no problem pursuing that. I'm happy to talk with members on the other side of the aisle to see if there's common ground we can reach on that issue."

In a separate letter to Bush on Wednesday, Boehner called on the president to block all federal dollars to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN. The organization has come under fire because of its efforts to register tens of thousands of new voters. Boehner claims congressional Democrats have funneled more than $30 million to ACORN.