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Every move she makes
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Akron Beacon-Journal July 28, 2008 |
Jennifer Brunner has a target on her back. Republicans wish for few things more than holding her tenure as secretary of state to one term. A case can be made that a Republican revival in Ohio begins by gaining the secretary of state's seat on the apportionment board, a Republican replacing a Democrat on the panel that redraws legislative district lines.
That explains, in part, the close attention Republicans pay to her every move, especially as the state's chief elections officer in this presidential year. They yelped last week, accusing Brunner of failing to follow legislative intent in mailing applications for absentee ballots for the November election.
House and Senate Republicans wanted all voters to receive early notice of the expanded opportunity to cast an absentee ballot. They wedged the requirement into the capital improvements bill in June. They set aside $3 million to cover the costs.
The idea is sound. Unfortunately, Republicans didn't consult with the secretary of state. When Brunner assessed the requirement, she concluded the $3 million wasn't sufficient to do all that lawmakers required, the sum about $1.5 million short. She did the next best thing. She gave boards of the elections the option of mailing the applications. She set priorities, ensuring, for instance, enough postage for voters to return their applications for absentee ballots.
Listen to Republicans, and you would think she had ordered use of the butterfly ballot. They recoiled at the potential for inconsistency, especially, the denying of absentee ballot applications to rural voters.
All of the protestation was too much, especially in view of the failure to seek Brunner's counsel in the first place. Make no mistake, Brunner knows how to play partisan hardball. She also has improved the office and delivered tough decisions. Republicans begin to look silly when at her slightest flinch, they turn the spigot on their outrage.
