Ohio's Secretary of State, the partisan Democrat Jennifer Brunner, is breaking the law by failing to give local officials the opportunity to check newly-registered voters against outside databases. Darrel Rowland and Mark Niquette of the Columbus Dispatch report:

"It is hard to imagine a public interest more compelling than safeguarding the legitimacy of the election of the president of the United States," said Judge George C. Smith of U.S. District Court in Columbus in upholding the Ohio Republican Party's request for a court order.

Brunner's office said she is filing an immediate appeal with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Smith, appointed by President Reagan, said the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires states not only to verify the addresses and other identifying information provided by newly registered voters with the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the federal Social Security Administration, but also to provide counties with the names of new voters whose records did not match.