The Ohio Secretary of State website that, among other things, handles voter registration and election information, has been hacked.
According to the official statement (link above) by the Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner...
Due to security concerns experienced by the Secretary of State’s website, full functionality of the website has been suspended to protect the integrity of state records and data. Full functionality will be restored when we are assured that all data has been protected to acceptable levels of security.
Note that this could have been pretty nasty - imagine what would happen if somebody messed, say, with the "Where do I vote?" page... However, real nastiness is after the jump.
The good news is - today the site is back online. No details of the hack have been made public, except that "the voters' personal information was not accessed" and that "Ohio's Highway Patrol is helping in the investigation of the incident." Somehow I don't find that last bit particularly encouraging.
The same Secretary of State site press release lists a few other kinds of crap going on with the Secretary of State office - hate e-mail and phone calls, death threats, a package with white powder... According to Reuters...
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, said in a separate statement that Brunner and her family had been subjected to "repeated serious threats."
Note that the present Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, lists among her achievements...
Completion of a massive review of the state’s voting systems for security, reliability and operational changes. Brunner advocates a move to paper ballots in Ohio to address security and performance deficiencies pending the development of improved technology.
Brunner's position on election integrity stands in stark contrast with that of the Secretary of State in Ohio during the previous presidential election - Ken Blackwell, whose name will be forever remembered in infamy for massive voter suppression, campaigning for an anti-gay-rights amendment to the state constitution, and extremely dodgy dealings with Diebold.
Looks like some people are quite unhappy with the new Secretary of State and her approach to securing the elections.
For some reason, the only press coverage of the hack I was able to dig up (other than this Reuters blurb) was in The Register (which is British). Dan Goodin, who lives in San Francisco and writes for The Register, helpfully concludes his article with the following news bits (these are probably not news to the Kossacks, but they put the hack in context)...
Last week, the US Supreme Court blocked a lower court ruling that would have required Brunner - a democrat - to scrutinize the applications of thousands of newly registered Ohio voters before adding them to the voting rolls.
In Cincinnati, Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph Deters - who is also chairman of the southwest Ohio regional campaign for McCain - launched a grand-jury investigation following complaints about early voters. He turned the probe over to a court-appointed special prosecutor following complaints from democrats.
(I just love the lower-case 'd' "democrat" in that quote...)
UPDATE. Apparently the Plain Dealer broke the story on the hack. That article also suggests that the Highway Patrol is dealing with the hack because of its possible connection with some other ugly stuff, including death threats against Brunner.
Ohio Governor and Secretary of State are under a pretty nasty assault right now. I fervently hope that they stay strong in carrying out their civic duty... strong and safe.