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Oct

20

OH Secretary of State site down, lawsuit kicked back to OH Supreme Court


I really wanted to title this, Insanity in Ohio, but that just seems so unfair.

First: The case that was removed from the Ohio Supreme Court to the federal court, that is identical to the voter registration-HAVA case filed by the Ohio Republican Party that the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of the Ohio SOS last Friday? It’s now been kicked back to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Second: The Ohio Secretary of State’s website is down (e-mail in the inbox):

Secretary of State Website Temporarily Taken Down for Security Purposes
Ohio State Highway Patrol will assist with investigation

Columbus, Ohio –  Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced on Monday afternoon that the state website has been set in a static mode with limited functionality as a precaution.  The Ohio State Highway Patrol will assist with an investigation of one or more security breaches detected by the Secretary of State.

“Due to security concerns experienced by the Secretary of State’s website, full functionality of the website has been suspended to protect the integrity of state records and data.  Full functionality will be restored when we are assured that all data has been protected to acceptable levels of security,” said Secretary of State Brunner.

“Our focus is and has always been to protect the vote of every eligible Ohio voter from any kind of fraud, be it voter registration fraud, illegal voting or vote suppression.  This action has been taken to detect and prosecute any illegal breach of our voting infrastructure to maintain voter confidence,” said Secretary Brunner.

Unfortunately, this is not the first instance of direct assault on the operations of the Secretary of State’s office.  In recent weeks, phone lines and e-mail channels have been barraged, even in the business filings section of the office, with menacing messages and even threats of harm or death.  Last week, a suspicious package covered with threatening messages and containing an unidentified powder was mailed to the Secretary of State’s office via the previous location of the Client Services Center.  These incidents are also under investigation.

The Secretary of State’s office will continue to work in the best interest of Ohio voters and the boards of elections as we continue our preparation for a successful election.

When I know more, you will too (and if you know more before me, well, let me know!).

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:20 pm October 20th, 2008 in WH2008 

Comments

5 Responses to “OH Secretary of State site down, lawsuit kicked back to OH Supreme Court”

  1. 1 Erica on October 20th, 2008 6:46 pm

    What sort of person considers terrorism by mail to be an appropriate response to suspected voter fraud? Ugh.

    Saddest of all, I’m not extremely surprised.

  2. 2 oengus on October 20th, 2008 7:55 pm

    Wow they got hacked, wonder how much they got ? Thank god I am not a registered voter.

    I suppose if they hacked a list of registered voters, then the hackers could investigate on their own.
    Can we tell the highway patrol to secure this site as well http://www.bmv.ohio.gov/ because that also has data linked to it. Through this link https://www.dps.state.oh.us/bmv/VehSetID.aspx which look very vulnerable to me in that it was created with ASP and look rather amateurish. I would not be surprised if it is not secure. ASP is what it runs and is a method to link the web to a data base, that has everyone’s social and driver license.

    Another good reason to stay anonymous on the net, names are associated with SS and part of your identity which can be stolen. There is not much money in voter fraud but trafficking indentities has a market.

  3. 3 kegbot1 on October 20th, 2008 8:04 pm

    death threats. . .

    Republicans are thugs. They’re doing their damnedest to steal this election. Period.

  4. 4 Goon Squad Attacks Ohio SOS Office « Bad American on October 20th, 2008 9:20 pm

    [...] First in this post which Jill wanted to title “Insanity in Ohio” (and I don’t think that would have been unfair) outlines this story from the PD openers blog in which the Rethuglicans attempt to throw a monkey wrench into the votes of Ohioans and hopefully steal the state for McCain is updated: [...]

  5. 5 oengus on October 20th, 2008 10:18 pm

    She is looking incompetent and petty, she should be able to field these and she is not. Not partisan, but how would you know? No time to validate but time to address legal battles? Faults in processing and a cover up? The check box issue tells a lot about the process and not very encouraging.

    That office is hot seat and easily attacked, she should be instilling confidence letting it get to court does not do that…you can not say its all political and refuse. There has not been that many votes cast it looks evasive and confrontational, the governor should put some people on it and audit. If it’s political then why not stop that with process review is that office unapproachable? What is this I can only be approached from a certain angle and under certain circumstances.

    How big does it get and how close to the election before it stops? I do not want to put the resources on it, who is this woman?

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