Ohio holds its primary this year on May 4. The race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate is between Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor, Lee Fisher, and Ohio’s Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner.
The State Column, which covers Ohio politics, has this April 12 story about Fisher’s attempt to score points against Brunner, over an election law issue. As the article says, Ohio is an open primary state, meaning that voters do not register into parties on the voter registration form. But Ohio has a law that says elections officials should make a record of which party’s primary a voter chooses. Then, at the next primary, if the voter has not filled out a form switching parties, the voter is expected to choose the same party’s primary ballot that he or she had chosen last time. But, this law has long been ignored in Ohio.
Recently Secretary of State Brunner said the law ought to be obeyed, and provided a form that voters who are switching parties should fill out at the polls on primary day. It asks the voter to express loyalty to the party whose primary ballot the voter desires. Brunner recently said she would like not to do this, but that she must enforce the law. However she also said she wants to repeal the law. Notwithstanding her statement, Fisher has just attacked her for enforcing the law and for producing the loyalty oath form.