Bennett Calls on Brunner to Remove Elections Employee Who Was Fired for Alledgedly Violating Election Law

Via email:

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett called on Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to demand the resignation of an employee in Brunner’s office who was ordered to be fired for violating election law.

Brunner hired former Auglaize County board of elections director Jean Burklo to be a field representative for the Secretary of State’s office. According to media reports, Burklo was ordered to be “fired from her position with the Auglaize County Election Board in April 2005, after a state investigation suspected improprieties during her term,” including problems with proper maintenance of public records and security procedures. Burklo is now responsible for overseeing elections in nine counties. (“Burklo makes comeback,” Karen Campbell, Wapakoneta Daily News, 1/13/07)

“Jennifer Brunner is a hypocrite,” said Bennett. “She wants to remove an entire elections board in Cuyahoga County based on a procedural technicality, and yet she puts someone in charge of nine county elections who was fired for violating election laws. If Brunner really cares about upholding the integrity of elections, she needs to match her actions with her rhetoric and remove this employee from her position immediately.”

Brunner’s spokesman acknowledged the Secretary of State was “aware of [Burklo’s] removal from office” yet chose to hire her anyway. Burklo was ordered to be removed from her position as board director after an investigation into charges that she illegally returned a candidate petition and altered board records. Among other charges, she was also accused of improperly allowing an electronic voting machine vendor access to board computers containing ballots for the county’s 2004 general election.

According to the Secretary of State’s investigation into Burklo, “Her violations of or noncompliance with the laws governing petitions, public records, office administration, and the voting process are inexplicable and inexcusable. She appeared fully aware of the impropriety of her conduct and offered no defense of her actions.” The board was placed on administrative oversight after Burklo was removed from her position as director.

“This is an outrageous double standard on the part of Jennifer Brunner, and it’s further proof that her motives in the case of Cuyahoga County are purely political,” said Bennett. “Brunner ran her campaign on a promise not to politicize the secretary of state’s office, and yet, so far, that’s all she’s done since her first day on the job.”