Democrats deny election fraud exists in Ohio:

Jennifer Brunner: “There are a number of, basically, allegations that don't have any evidence to support them. There's much more conjecture than anything else.” (Fox News, 10/9/08)

Columbus Dispatch: Brunner said reports of widespread voter fraud in Ohio are overblown. "I don't believe there is an effort under way to steal the election." (The Columbus Dispatch, 10/15/08)

Ted Strickland: "There is no evidence of voter fraud in Ohio and it offends me, quite frankly, that even some of the leaders within the Republican Party now are attempting to convey that impression in their criticism of Secretary Brunner and our voting system." (Gongwer News Service, 10/17/08)

But the record is clear:

Wheeling News Intelligencer: During a campaign stop on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama last week, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland downplayed reports of voter registration fraud involving ACORN - the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Strickland called allegations against ACORN "overblown and exaggerated." That isn't accurate - and Strickland knows it. ... Strickland is doing the public a disservice by attempting to dismiss the issue. In fact, the governor's own comments clearly are, well, "little more than a political ploy." (Editorial, Wheeling News Intelligencer, 10/23/08)

The Plain Dealer: A national voter-registration group admitted to Cuyahoga County election officials Tuesday that it cannot eliminate fraud from its operation. The group blamed inefficiency and lack of resources for problems such as being unable to spot duplicate voter-registration cards or cards that may have been filled out by workers to make quotas. (The Plain Dealer, 10/7/08)

New York Post: Investigators probing ACORN have learned that an Ohio man registered to vote several times and cast a bogus ballot with a fake address, officials said yesterday, as they revealed that nearly 4,000 registration applications supplied by the left-leaning activist group were suspect. (New York Post, 10/14/08)

Associated Press: Elections officials in the Cleveland area have identified 14 more cases of potential voter registration fraud involving a voter advocacy group accused of submitting false registration forms in several states. The Cuyahoga County elections board said Tuesday it has referred the cases to the county prosecutor as part of a larger investigation of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN. (Associated Press, 10/22/08)

The Plain Dealer: Board employees said ACORN workers often handed in the same name on a number of voter registration cards, but showing that person living at different addresses. Other times, cards had the same name listed, but a different date of birth. Still another sign of possible fraud showed a number of people living at an address that turned out to be a restaurant. "I'm obviously very concerned," Board Chairman Jeff Hastings said. "This goes to the essence of our democracy." (The Plain Dealer, 8/27/08)

Cincinnati Enquirer: The Hamilton County Board of Elections has received at least 10,000 duplicate voter registrations this year and possibly thousands of fictitious ones, according to deputy director John Williams. The deadline to register was Monday. Officials don’t know how many of the registration cards are truly fictional because the local board – although it does have some safeguards in place to weed out problematic cards – has no method of cross checking the registrations against a state database. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/10/08)

Cincinnati Enquirer: In Hamilton County, 17 people are registered to vote from riverfront addresses south of Mehring Way - places with street numbers that would put their homes somewhere in the Ohio River. Another 46 voters are registered at addresses that would put their homes in the middle of the Paul Brown Stadium parking lot, or at the riverfront project known as The Banks - which hasn't been built. An Enquirer analysis of more than 8 million Ohio voter registration records found a litany of quirks, inconsistencies, errors, duplicate registrations and other problems with little more than two weeks until Election Day. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/19/08)

New York Post: Four well-heeled New York Democrats are under investigation by an Ohio prosecutor for setting up a temporary home in the swing state - where two have already cast their ballots - just so that their votes will be counted there, The Post has learned. … The New Yorkers and nine other members from across the country are accused of packing themselves into a modest three-bedroom house in Columbus, waiting 30 days - and then registering, even though the Buckeye State is not their permanent residence. (New York Post, 10/20/08)

Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien confirmed that he is investigating alleged voter and registration fraud involving 13 newly registered voters who came to Columbus for a get-out-the-vote campaign and used the same address, a small East Side home. … "None of the people who registered had prior contacts with Columbus and Franklin County," O'Brien said. "You must be a resident of the state of Ohio in order to register and cast a ballot, and that's the issue being examined - whether they were proper residents of Ohio." (The Columbus Dispatch, 10/15/08)

Despite the evidence of fraud, Brunner refuses to act on 200,000 questionable registrations:

Columbus Dispatch: Amid new allegations of voter fraud, the Ohio Secretary of State conceded today that the eligibility of nearly one third of newly registered voters is in question. … Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said a preliminary review showed that 200,000 of the 666,000 voters who registered since Jan. 1 must have their eligibility verified to comply with a federal court order. (The Columbus Dispatch, 10/15/08)

Peter Bronson, Cincinnati Enquirer: The Sixth Circuit court's 9-6 majority opinion had a pretty strong opinion about Brunner and the way she has mangled Ohio's election. It said she offered "no factual support for her arguments," and was "ear-splittingly silent" in support for her claims that checking for fraud is too difficult and interferes with the election. In fact, among 660,000 new registrations, Brunner found 200,000 that are suspect - more than Ohio's 118,000-margin of victory for Bush in 2004. But she refused to identify the mismatched registrations so local boards of elections can investigate them before Nov. 4. (Columnist Peter Bronson, Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/19/08)

Columbus Dispatch: Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner made a serious blunder by failing to give county elections boards the names of new voters whose registration records don't match state and federal data. … In addition to discrediting herself, Brunner's attempt to withhold the data undermines the integrity of the election system. … Brunner campaigned for office by promising to restore trust in the election system and in the secretary of state's office, but once again she is doing the opposite. (Editorial, The Columbus Dispatch, 10/12/08)

Cincinnati Enquirer: If Ohio is embarrassed by a bad case of Florida-style election dysfunction in November, blame Jennifer Brunner. The Ohio Secretary of State made a mess of the vote before it even started. … No wonder the rest of the country is beginning to think Brunner is Ohio's Katherine Harris - the Florida secretary of state vilified by Democrats in 2000. But that's not fair. Harris wasn't half as partisan as Brunner. (Peter Bronson, Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/7/08)