Last week, I wrote that the links between ACORN, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, and the group Secretary of State Project were concerning. I asked how many other Secretaries of State were backed by ACORN.
Well. There’s a recount in Minnesota that will determine whether Norm Coleman keeps his seat. And another ACORN backed, Secretary of State Project-backed candidate will be doing the recount. Let’s see what they say about Ritchie.
The Secretary of State Project describes him as:
In 2006, the SoS Project helped elect one of the most progressive Secretaries of State in the nation, Mark Ritchie. How he got his start in politics? As a community organizer.
The SoS Project describes Brunner and Ritchie as their success stories. Recall that Brunner tried to throw out all of the McCain absentee ballot applications, violated federal law by sepcifically directing Ohio to turn off validity checks on registration, and encouraged county election officials to not allow Republican election officials to observe voting. In every case, courts said she was simply wrong. There is a reason that SoS Project backed Ritchie, just like they backed Brunner. Partisanship at the cost of electoral integrity.
Here’s Ritchie’s background. He used his government office for political gain:
Ritchie acknowledged asking a campaign volunteer to copy a list of participants in a civic engagement program through the secretary of state’s office to his campaign newsletter, which included a political contribution request.
He was endorsed by ACORN.
So we have a guy who was elected by a group whose practices encourage at least voter registration fraud and make it easier to cheat in elections. He was elected by a group that is seeking to make sure that the people who count votes are partisans, and their other success story in 2006 has been shot down by the court repeatedly in her attempts to rig Ohio elections. And he misused government resources for political purposes.
This is the guy counting the votes. Who is he going to dance with? The ones that brought him? We know how they play.