ODP: Republicans using 'Bull Connor' tactics in Greene co.

Ohio Republicans are deploying their own “Bull Connor” to scare people from voting, the Ohio Democratic Party accused today.

ODP chair Chris Redfern and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman (D) held a conference call with reporters to characterize the Greene Co. Sheriff Gene Fischer’s request for all registration cards and address-change forms for all who registered and voted last week in the county.

The ODP said Republicans and John McCain’s campaign are behind the request because the sheriff is a Republican and county prosecutor Stephen Heller is the former law partner of Mike DeWine, who now chairs McCain’s Ohio campaign.

Redfern said Fischer’s request for unredacted documents – containing names, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers – will have scare away on those who are thinking about voting in Greene County.

“It has a chilling impact on those who may be voting for the first time [and] those who may be college students and have every legal opportunity and right to vote....  It sends a chilling impact to those who may have some question as to whether or not being 18 or 19-years old they’re allowed to vote,” Redfern said.

Coleman likened the sheriff to the infamous Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham, Alabama’s police chief who led physical assaults on protestors in during the civil rights movement.
Redfern called the sheriff’s efforts the “tip of the spear” to disenfranchise voters by the ORP. Coleman said the effort is happening with the “clear blessing” of McCain’s campaign.

Prosecutor Haller told the Associated Press the document request wasn’t motivated by politics and that he isn’t personally working on the matter.

Ohio Republican Party deputy chair Kevin DeWine said in a statement that the ODP should look in the mirror when it comes to disenfranchising voters.

"If Democrats want to complain about voter suppression, they should look no further than their own secretary of state.  A unanimous court ruling denounced Jennifer Brunner's effort to deny absentee ballots to thousands of Republican voters as a clear violation of state law,” he said.