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Why ACORN and Ohio Voter Fraud Charges Are Important

By Fox News
Published | Updated

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," October 10, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JAMIE COLBY, FOX NEWS GUEST HOST: Well, when the president won in Ohio, pretty much everyone agreed that it decided the election. But tonight there's a cloud of uncertainty hanging over that very state, and it is because of suspected voter fraud. In fact, last night, a federal judge demanded that the Ohio secretary of state take further measures to prevent voter fraud in her state. He said she didn't go far enough.

Ken Blackwell is the former secretary of state of Ohio. He was in office during that 2004 election, and Secretary Blackwell joins me now. Good to see you, sir. Thank you very much.

KEN BLACKWELL (R), FORMER OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: Good to be with you.

COLBY: Do you think that the federal judge ruling is correct, that enough isn't being done by the current secretary of state to prevent voter fraud?

BLACKWELL: Well, what the judge understands is that on October the 25th, all of the votes that have been cast early will be mixed together, taken out of their identification sleeve, and there will be no opportunity ever again to track that particular vote.

He also understands that boards of elections -- we have 88 of them with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans throughout our state -- they count the vote and they do the verification as to whether or not a voter is a legal voter. So he is saying to the secretary of state, Do your job so that these folks can do their job and make sure that we're not having our system, you know, just destroyed by voter fraud.

COLBY: Well, what do you make of the fact that in one county, a major county, there are more people registered than actually live in that county?

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BLACKWELL: Well, that's the kind of thing that the local boards of elections are able to track if they're given the proper tools. The secretary of state is getting the information from the federal government with the Social Security numbers, and she is not releasing this information to the local boards of elections so that they can make sure that they root out those voters who are either have moved or who are now deceased or who are false voters made up out of whole cloth.

COLBY: Or perhaps complicated by the overlap of being able to register and vote simultaneously and not having the ability to check whether or not they should be voting at all. So the question is, Secretary, how will this be fixed in Ohio between now and the election?

BLACKWELL: Well, it will be fixed if the secretary of state stops the legal wrangling and really allows the proper information to get to the boards of elections. Let me just be clear. The judge is right. We have at stake the quality of our democracy. Our democracy turns on our ability to convince voters that regardless of the results, they are honest results.

COLBY: We want integrity of the election.

BLACKWELL: Oh, absolutely.

COLBY: Free, fair and with integrity. That's what you're hoping for in Ohio.

BLACKWELL: Oh, absolutely.

COLBY: Maybe she's listening.

BLACKWELL: We have a crisis in our markets...

COLBY: Maybe she's listening.

BLACKWELL: We have a crisis...

COLBY: Because the judge was very clear.

BLACKWELL: We have a -- yes. We have a crisis in our markets, and so we also have a crisis of confidence in our election process. We must restore public trust in the election process.

COLBY: All right. Secretary Blackwell, I thank you for coming on to talk to us about it. Time is running out to get it right, and I hope that Ohio can. Don't underestimate how important Ohio is in this race.


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