Husted’s Residency Fraud Could Remove Him From the Ticket

… Might Jennifer Brunner Get to Cast the Deciding Vote?

This article from the Dayton Daily News which ran nearly a week ago may have started a chain of events that could end with a delicious ironic twist for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Put simply, because it looks like Husted lives in Columbus with his family, the Montgomery County Board of Elections would vote on whether or not Husted is a valid, registered voter of Montgomery County. According to the DDN:

The deadline has passed to challenge a person’s place on the ballot. However, the board can question the validity of a person’s registration, said Steve Harsman, board of elections director.

Ohio law on residency for voting purposes says a person’s residence is the “place where the family of a married person resides.”

A legislator may be forced to forfeit his seat if he is not a legal resident of the district he represents.

Inevitably, the board would tie in any such vote. Who gets to break the tie? Brunner.

Why is this ironic? Ohio is getting attention this presidential election year for all the usual reasons: Ohio has voted for every winning presidential candidate every cycle save two for the past century, the race here is still tight, and the 2004 presidential race between George W. Bush and John Kerry came down to Ohio early in the morning on the first Wednesday in that November.

Ohio is getting even more attention this election year because of the smoke screen the Ohio Republican Party has been laying all over our election process. Bogus court case after bogus court case has come and gone, attacking our Secretary of State for implementing election laws passed by a Republican legislature. They’ve even been embarrassed by the Supreme Court of the United States. Along with the legal challenges has come a low to mid-grade domestic terror campaign which has included cyber attacks and death threats against Brunner and her office. This is fueled by the Republican slime machine here and nationally.

What political insiders in Columbus know is that the campaign against Brunner isn’t about fighting Barack Obama’s Ohio GOTV juggernaut. What we’ve been witnessing is the preparation of the 2010 election battleground. It’s a campaign with Jon Husted at the heart of it all. Husted, knowing he doesn’t have a chance in hell of competing with Governor Ted Strickland in 2010 has his sights set on the Secretary of State’s office. The SoS will hold a seat on the apportionment board, another plum for career politician Husted.

Remember what a nightmare Republican Ken Blackwell was as Secretary of State? That’s how they want to paint Brunner. The problem is where Blackwell disgraced the office with naked partisanship, mismanagement, and by proving to all of us he’s just not that bright – Brunner has cultivated an image as a thoughtful public servant who respects the office. If she’s not Blackwell, the Republican thinking goes, let’s raise so much hell in the election system during this super-charged presidential cycle and leave the impression that Brunner’s bollocksed it all up.

Currently things stand with the Montgomery County Board of Elections attorney conducting a review of residency laws.
The Board is considering a full investigation of Husted which could end in the aforementioned vote.

I hope Brunner gets her chance to have the last laugh in the saga of Slick Jonny.