By far the most important state in this year's election is Ohio. It is the only major state that President Bush carried in 2000 that John Kerry has a good chance to win this year. And it has plenty of electoral votes to give Kerry the Presidency if the rest of the map stays the same--as, with very few exceptions, it appears likely to do.

Recognizing the importance of Ohio, the Democrats are pulling out all the stops to commit enough fraud to steal the state. Digital Brown Pajamas alerted us to this astonishing news story:

Hundreds of cases of suspected election fraud are under review in Franklin County.  "I was surprised by the number," county prosecutor Ron O’Brien told 10TV. Stacks of voter registration applications are now being scrutinized. Prosecutor O'Brien’s office is reviewing them for irregularities after the applications raised red flags with the Board of Elections 

"What causes some of this to happen is that people are being paid to register new voters," O’Brien said of the practice of paying people by the application.

One application being examined was signed in the name of a man who passed away in February. Another 25 applications show different addresses for the same man.

Six of the suspicious forms were submitted by representatives of the Columbus Urban League, while 62 others came from ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Kevin Eugene Dooley, involved in Project Vote as an employee or agent of ACORN, was indicted by the grand jury earlier this year for two felony election offenses -- false election registration, and submitting false election signatures to the Board of Elections.  Dooley is alleged to have falsified and forged a new voter registration card that was submitted to the BOE.

And you might recognize the name of Nuradin Abdi.  He’s a native of Somalia charged with plotting to blow up a Columbus mall.

"As far as board of elections is concerned, Abdi is a registered voter," board of elections director Matt Damschroeder said.

We now know according to federal officials, he's an illegal alien.  That would mean he can't legally vote.  But the Franklin County Board of Elections had no way of checking that when they sent him a voter registration card early this year. The board takes a person's word, that they're a U.S. citizen.

Most states make no serious effort to prevent election fraud, and the Democrats are taking full advantage of the system's weakness. Fraud could tip the balance in Ohio, and thereby give the election to Kerry.