FNC: Ohio’s Dem Sec of State Stonewalling Voter Fraud Investigation

October 17th, 2008 3:23 PM

On Thursday’s The O’Reilly Factor, FNC’s Megyn Kelly filled in viewers on the current voter fraud controversy in Ohio involving ACORN, and Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s refusal to comply with a federal court ruling in spite of clear evidence of fraudulent voter registrations. Kelly: "She's required by federal law to have her state database linked up to the DMV, and to the Social Security Administration, so that she's got two ways of checking people's registration to make sure they're legit. ... And she's required to keep a list of the discrepancies. She has done neither. She admitted she has turned off the link between the state database and the DMV. ... She admits all this stuff. The state of Ohio is embarrassed because the federal government now has to come in and order the state to run a clean election."

Kelly also noted the potential impact of voter fraud given Ohio’s history of close presidential elections: "George Bush won Ohio by less than 200,000 votes, both in 2000 and 2004. She's admitting, admitting that 200,000 out of the 660,000 new voters are potentially problematic. And she won't let people verify whether, in fact, there is a problem."

Below is a complete transcript of Thursday’s "Kelly File" segment from FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor:

BILL O'REILLY: "Kelly File" segment tonight, the federal courts are now involved in election in the state of Ohio because of potential problems with 200,000 new registered voters. And the Secretary of State there, Jennifer Brunner, is refusing to cooperate. As you may know, the organization ACORN has been active in Ohio. And there are fraud charges against that group. With us now, the co-anchor of "America's Newsroom," Megyn Kelley, an attorney who has been looking into the situation for us. John Kasich was on earlier this week, and he said this Brunner, this secretary of state is just simply not doing the job. Obviously, that's true because the federal courts have now ruled, what, what does she have to do?

MEGYN KELLY: They've ruled against her. They've said you've got to get together a list that shows the discrepancies, the potentially problematic new voter registrations and hand it over to the election officials so that when those potentially problematic voters show up, the election officials can verify one way or the other whether they're legit.

O'REILLY: Why would Brunner, a Democrat, secretary of state, want to do that?

KELLY: That's the question.

O'REILLY: We called her-

KELLY: She's come out.

O'REILLY: -and she won’t come on.

KELLY: Listen, I took a look at this with a fresh independent eye. I don't have a dog in this race.

O'REILLY: No, and you're not an ideologue.

KELLY: Not at all. So I took a look to see what exactly was going on. Here's the deal. She's required by federal law to have her state database linked up to the DMV, and to the Social Security Administration, so that she's got two ways of checking people's registration to make sure they're legit. They say-

O'REILLY: She's got a state way.

KELLY: Yeah.

O'REILLY: And she's got a federal way.

KELLY: To make sure they are who they say they are, and they live where they say they live.

O'REILLY: Right.

KELLY: Namely in Ohio. She's required to have that set up.

O'REILLY: Right.

KELLY: And she's required to keep a list of the discrepancies. She has done neither. She admitted she has turned off the link between the state database and the DMV.

O'REILLY: All right, so she-

KELLY: And she doesn't have a list.

O'REILLY: She admits all this stuff. The state of Ohio is embarrassed because the federal government now has to come in and order the state to run a clean election.

KELLY: Federal courts have.

O'REILLY: But there's no why behind it? She says well, I did this because, or I don't want to cooperate because? There's none of that?

KELLY: She just says, look, this has been the system that’s been in place for years. No one complained before. Too bad you've complained now. And I don't have enough time to do it in advance of this election because I'm getting ready for other things.

O'REILLY: But she says she doesn't have enough time to do it.

KELLY: That's what she says. And she says she's going to, she doesn't want to disenfranchise Ohio voters complying with federal red tape. It's the law!

O'REILLY: Okay, now we have to get into the opinion realm. Now you just gave, Megyn was just in the fact realm. Many people believe, and I am one of them, that because ACORN is a Democratic-leaning organization, heavily funded by left wingers-

KELLY: Right.

O'REILLY: -that, and this woman, Brunner, and the governor are Democrats, that they want chaos, and that they want people to vote Democrat even if they're not eligible to vote. Now, I don't think that's so farfetched. I think that they say, well, I don't want to investigate this because this could be 100,000 votes, even if they're illegal. So what? We want to win. We know Ohio's a lynchpin state.

KELLY: Well, I know. I can see the argument because, listen, both in 2000 and in 2004.

O'REILLY: How do you repudiate that part of it.

KELLY: You can't. But listen.

O'REILLY: Right.

KELLY: George Bush won Ohio by less than 200,000 votes, both in 2000 and 2004. She's admitting, admitting that 200,000 out of the 660,000 new voters are potentially problematic. And she won't let people verify whether, in fact, there is a problem-

O'REILLY: But now she has to, right?

KELLY: .No, not necessarily. I mean, the Sixth Circuit has said she has to, but she's appealing to the Supreme Court.

O'REILLY: So she's appealing?

KELLY: And Justice Stevens is the justice who oversees that service.

O'REILLY: He's a very liberal judge.

KELLY: He's the most liberal, so there's a possibility he'll grant her the state she is seeking.

O'REILLY: Well, it might not be heard.

KELLY: No, it might not be heard. He could kick it. He could say we're not listening. And believe me, if the Supreme Court is smart, they won't get involved in election law again.

O'REILLY: But if they don't, and then it's proven because you know now they're going to be everybody's going to be in Ohio watching. If they prove it, that there's voter fraud in that state, that could throw the whole presidential election.

KELLY: Bill, it has already been proven. She came out in her brief, and she said to the Supreme Court, and I want to get the words right. This is "rank speculation" that out-of-state residents are flooding into Ohio and registering to vote with false addresses. Well, the palestra.net, of all things, this sister network that we use sometimes here on Fox News, college journalists, they're student journalists who we sometimes put on. They proved it. They found, in just one house by way of example, where a bunch of students went in, kids from out of state, registered as Ohio residents. One guy's now back in England. He's American citizen, but he's studying at Oxford. No connection to Ohio. And the guy has already voted. There is voter fraud going on in Ohio. She has not been-

O'REILLY: .And they have early voting there.

KELLY: And they have to get this list, A, prepared. She says she doesn't even have it. And B, circulate it to these election officials so they can confirm-

O'REILLY: But Stevens could say, no, she doesn't.

KELLY: Yes, Stevens could shut it down.

O'REILLY: All right, you stay on it, because if this is a voter fraud, then this is going to blow up. The whole thing is going to go crazy. It's going to be like Florida in 2000.

KELLY: Could be a mess.