Jennifer Brunner

Jennifer Brunner

Jennifer Lee Brunner (born February 5, 1957) is an American politician of the Democratic Party who currently serves as the Ohio Secretary of State. Brunner is the first woman to serve in this capacity.

Career

Brunner previously worked in the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office as a deputy director and legislative counsel to the Ohio General Assembly during the administration of Sherrod Brown. She then began a statewide law practice focusing on election law. In 2000, Brunner was elected to an unexpired term on the Franklin County Common Pleas Court and reelected in 2002. She resigned from the Court on September 1, 2005, to run for Secretary of State. On November 7, 2006, she defeated Republican Greg Hartmann in the 2006 general election and took office on January 8, 2007. Brunner supports a move to paper ballots.

Secretary of State accomplishments

In January, Brunner proposed a plan that would allow counties to recruit poll workers by mail, who would then undertake two paid training days, and work a paid eight-hour shift at the polls on election day. Brunner explained the plan in an interview:

"In terms of Ohio and what happened in the 2004 presidential election, there has been a crisis in confidence in our election system in Ohio, both nationally and in our state. One of the quickest ways to repair that is to make sure that we have adequate numbers of poll workers. ... We suggested this as one tool that the boards of elections would have available to them for recruiting poll workers. We would be looking to do this similar to how we recruit jurors, only jurors are recruited for two weeks of service whereas we'd only be asking for three days. It would also allow us to offer split shifts to poll workers. In Ohio the polling places are open for thirteen hours, so essentially a poll worker works at least fourteen hours; with the average age of our poll workers at 72, that's a tough day for anyone, no matter what their age is. ... It's an option, and we can even include a trigger, so that a county has to be deficient by a certain percentage of poll workers to even be able to use this."

In the initial proposal it was not yet decided what wages would be paid, and whether refusing recruitment would result in penalties. The proposal will be decided by the Ohio General Assembly.

Brunner has established the Voting Right Institute (VRI) to improve voter access to elections in Ohio. The VRI has instituted a “Grads Vote” program which supplies voter registration forms to all graduating high school senior. The VRI has also partnered with the U.S. Postal Service to include voter registration forms in government moving packets and with the Overseas Vote Foundation to improve online absentee ballot applications for overseas and military voters.

She has also moved to shield social security information and other private information from public view for millions of online records and coordinated with the Ohio General Assembly to preventing the filing of private information.

Same day voter registration

On August 13, 2008, Brunner ordered county election board officials to establish procedures to enable voters who register to be immediately issued an absentee ballot. The Republican Party opposed the same day voting plan and fought it in several Ohio Courts. Ohio Republican officials and Republican voters argued in separate lawsuits that Ohio law requires voters to be registered for 30 days before they cast an absentee ballot. On September 29, 2008 (a day after lower state and federal courts overruled GOP objections to same-day registration and voting or GOP requests for mandated ballot segregation and verification) the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Template:City-state rejected Republican efforts to stop the plan. United States district court judge James Gwin in Template:City-state also ruled against the Republicans and issued a restraining order to enforce Brunners plan. In Template:City-state, U.S. District Judge George Smith declined to rule on another statewide challenge, deferring to the state Supreme Court's decision. The rulings, which opened a window to register and vote on the same day until the absentee ballot deadline on October 6, 2008, was upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision in which two Republican jurists recused themselves and were replaced by a one Republican and one Democrat by Chief Justice Thomas Moyer. The normal roster of Ohio Supreme Court jurists is all Republican and the lone Democrat replacement cast the tie-breaking vote. Brunner ordered segregation of same-day-registration ballots and verification of them before counting them on Election Day, November 4, 2008. In related proceedings on September 30, 2008, a The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, in Columbus had granted an Ohio Republican Party request for a restraining order that would mandate election observers during early voting. Brunner prevailed in the appellate court which ruled that the district court “abused its discretion” in granting the restraining order.

Personal

Brunner earned a B.A. in sociology-gerontology, cum laude, from Miami University and a J.D. from Capital University Law School with honors. Brunner is a resident of Columbus, Ohio. She and her husband, Rick, have been married 28 years and have three adult children.

In March 2008, Brunner was given the Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

External links

• Campaign biography of Brunner