County Officials Seeking Ohio Voters' Records

Go to Original

Law enforcement officials in a southwest Ohio county populated with Democrat-leaning college students are seeking information on hundreds of people who registered to vote and cast ballots during the state's weeklong same-day voting window.

The window was the subject of an unsuccessful legal challenge by the Ohio Republican Party.

Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer, a Republican, requested registration cards and address change forms Thursday for all 302 people who took advantage of the window. He told elections officials he had been flooded with telephone calls from people concerned about possible fraud.

Representing Fischer is County Prosecutor Stephen Haller, a former law partner of Mike DeWine. DeWine, a former U.S. senator, chairs the Ohio campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

McCain's rival, Democrat Barack Obama, launched a major push to attract new voters during the window.

Haller said the records request was not politically motivated.

The county is home to five colleges or universities: Wright State, Central State, Wilberforce and Cedarville universities and Antioch College. Cedarville is a Christian college.

Lyn McCoy, the county's deputy elections director, said Thursday that the records request was being processed. Names, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers will be blackened out before the documents are release, she said.

Tom Miller, chief of the prosecutor's civil division, said Fischer is seeking information so that he can prevent voter fraud. He made it clear to prosecutors that his concerns were not partisan, Miller said, even noting during their discussion that students at one college, Cedarville, tend to vote Republican.

Among concerns presented to county officials were that college students who voted during the window would be able to vote again in their home counties on Election Day, and that early voters might simultaneously register and vote in Ohio and in another state, Miller said.

''There's certain information that the sheriff was hoping to appear on that voter registration that might enable him to track backward and determine whether there was any voter fraud or not,'' Miller said.

He said Fischer had been careful to express questions raised only as concerns, not allegations.

''No one was alleging that voting fraud was occurring,'' he said. ''It seemed to be of concern whether safeguards were in place to prevent those things from occurring.''

McCoy said she assured the sheriff and prosecutor's office that county and state election officials have practices in place to catch duplicate registrations and to prevent multiple votes by the same voter. They also will send a notice to the election board for the voter's old address indicating their registration there should be canceled.

Miller said voter registration forms are public records and the sheriff -- and any other member of the public -- is entitled to the information. He said Fischer wanted to submit his request at least 21 days before the election, because Ohio law gives election boards a reprieve from filling records request during the three weeks prior to an election.