CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Sally J. Krisel, the newly appointed director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, is a Democrat. She also appears to be a Barack Obama supporter who has made two separate financial contributions totaling $712 to his campaign. At least, that's what turned up today under her name in an online database of political contributions maintained by the Huffington Post.
City Beat's Porkopolis blog offered a brief rundown (minus any news of Krisel's support for Obama in the primaries against Hillary Clinton) last month about the changing of the guard at the board of elections in Ohio's third-largest county. There has been some wrangling -- particularly at the state level -- about partisanship among Ohio's election officials. It was rampant in 2004, when former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, then the state's top election supervisor, was playing a key role in the reelection campaign of President George W. Bush, who needed to carry Ohio to hold the White House. To this day, many suspect that Blackwell played some role in a conspiracy to shift votes to Bush.
Krisel was at the Hamilton County Board of Elections that year, and she oversaw absentee balloting. There was never a hint on scandal on her watch, nor was there any kind of cheating suspected under her boss, former director John Williams, a Republican. He's now Sally's deputy. Alex Triantafilou, the Hamilton County GOP chair, has taken over as the board chairman. He slips into the post held by Tim Burke, the county Dem chair, who becomes No. 2.
I'm glad to hear she's a Democrat. However, she is allowing voting machines owned by Tagg Romney to be used this election.
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