The office of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) is under assault, an apparent result of the Ohio Republican Party's barrage of baseless allegations that she is facilitating voter fraud and/or that the Ohio Democratic Party is "rigging the election." Today her official website (repository of business records and well as election data) was hacked, causing a shutdown for security reasons. In a statement released in light of that episode, Secretary Brunner revealed that her telephone and email channels have been swamped with menacing messages and threats (including death threats), and that a suspicious package containing unidentified white powder was delivered to her office.
Details after the break.
There is no doubt that the Republican Party's relentless assault on Brunner is the cause of these events. It has sent out fundraising emails accusing Brunner of promoting voter fraud, has sent an email to "values voters' urging them to make telehpone calls to the Secretary of States office as well as boards of elections of the larger counties, and has generated a robocall accusing Democrats of trying to "rig the election." If it weren't obvious enough, unofficial reports indicate that the messages have a political dimension, and the suspicious package reportedly was scrawled with the words "Death to Obama Supporters." [h/t WritesLikeSheTalks.]
Here is the official statement from Brunner's office:
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced on Monday afternoon that the state website has been set in a static mode with limited functionality as a precaution. The Ohio State Highway Patrol will assist with an investigation of one or more security breaches detected by the Secretary of State.
"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," said Secretary of State Brunner.
"Our focus is and has always been to protect the vote of every eligible Ohio voter from any kind of fraud, be it voter registration fraud, illegal voting or vote suppression. This action has been taken to detect and prosecute any illegal breach of our voting infrastructure to maintain voter confidence," said Secretary Brunner.
Unfortunately, this is not the first instance of direct assault on the operations of the Secretary of State's office. In recent weeks, phone lines and e-mail channels have been barraged, even in the business filings section of the office, with menacing messages and even threats of harm or death. Last week, a suspicious package covered with threatening messages and containing an unidentified powder was mailed to the Secretary of State's office via the previous location of the Client Services Center. These incidents are also under investigation.
The Secretary of State's office will continue to work in the best interest of Ohio voters and the boards of elections as we continue our preparation for a successful election.
This has gone far beyond anyone's definition of acceptable political tactics. As State Sen. Teresa Fedor wrote at Glass City Jungle yesterday, the Republicans are "trying to destroy our election system just to win an election" (although I would add that their other goal of unseating Brunner in 2010 is also in the mix). This despicable assault comes a hell of a lot closer to "destroying the fabric of democracy" than anything ACORN has allegedly committed, even in John McCain's feverish imagination.