Washington, D.C., Oct 23 -

U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Navarre) has joined with eight Ohio Republican colleagues to send a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey calling for the Department of Justice to enforce provisions of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). 

“As members of the greatest democracy in the history of the world, each of us has an obligation to work to ensure that voting in our elections is free and fair and not tainted with unidentifiable or fictitious voters,” said Regula.  “More than 600,000 voter registrations have been filed in Ohio since January.  Of those registrations, over 200,000 records contain inconsistencies,” he continued.  “In a state where the last presidential election was decided by less than 118,000 votes, 200,000 new-but-incorrect voter registrations is a troubling number.”

Last week, the United States Supreme Court vacated a lower court ruling that ordered Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to provide Ohio county election officials with statewide resources to verify new voter registrations, as required by HAVA.  The Supreme Court’s ruling was based upon a technical matter that the entity which had brought the case lacked legal standing to enforce HAVA and not on whether Secretary Brunner was complying with the law.  Under the Supreme Court’s ruling, only the Department of Justice may now legally enforce the provisions of HAVA. 

 “Although the Supreme Court unfortunately did not reach the merits of the case against Secretary Brunner, my colleagues and I encourage Attorney General Mukasey to take action to ensure compliance of HAVA and that information about newly registered voters actually matches information in the state’s voter registration database,” said Regula. “With new polls showing that a majority of Ohio voters do not believe their votes will be counted properly, it is time for the Justice Department to protect the integrity of our elections.  We cannot afford to lose the confidence of the voters that make this great democracy tick,” he concluded.

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