Just in Time for Halloween: Zombies Register to Vote in Ohio

Marc Elias, the same Clinton campaign attorney behind the recent claim in Virginia that the simple act of showing an ID at the polls (not obtaining one) constitutes an undue burden on the right to vote, brought a federal challenge to voting laws in Ohio earlier this year.

Mr. Elias is working with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative on the suit which is still in its pretrial phase. The Ohio Organizing Collaborative is an interesting choice for a partner in challenging alleged voting rights infractions, given the suspicious nature of the group's organizing efforts. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted recently advised local election officials to carefully scrutinize new voter registrations submitted by the group due to a high number of irregularities in prior submissions.

Local boards of election have reported receiving registration applications from the group for deceased persons in addition to applications with multiple names, address or identification mismatches, and registration update forms the appear to have been signed by someone other than the registered voter. Dave Johnson, vice-chairman of the Columbiana County Board of Elections, said of the group: "[t]hey have turned in roughly 530 voter registrations of which five of them were dead people. They actually had the dead people's drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers, and of course they forged the signatures of these dead people."

Commenting on the irregularities, Secretary Husted said: "[b]ecoming a registered voter in Ohio is not a complicated process - you have to be a resident, provide accurate and up-to-date information, and obviously still be alive. Anytime we receive reports that invalid and fraudulent voter registrations are being submitted we take it seriously and will work to ensure those individuals or groups responsible are being held accountable."

It seems Mr. Elias' passion for defending the integrity of our country's electoral process ends when misconduct offers candidates and causes he supports a potential boost.