Appeals court sides with Brunner

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals court has sided with Ohio’s top elections official in her battle with Republicans over how to verify the eligibility of newly registered voters.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has put on hold a lower court’s order that Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner institute means to verify voter registration information and make it accessible to Ohio’s 88 county election boards.

A U.S. District Court judge on Thursday ordered Brunner to verify new registrations by comparing information on them with the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration. He also ordered her to establish a process by which Ohio’s 88 county boards can access the information that is generated by the checks.

Brunner argued that nothing in the Help America Vote Act required her to do that, and the appeals court agreed in a split decision.