DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — Republican presidential candidate John McCain did his best during the debate to make Toledo's "Joe the Plumber" a household name.

On Thursday, Oct. 16, Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern added a chapter to Joe's everyman saga.

Redfern used Joe — whose real name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — as an example of what he said is an effort by Deputy Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine to suppress voter turnout. DeWine denied the charge.

Barack Obama met the famous-for-now Wurzelbacher while campaigning this week. With the cameras rolling, Wurzelbacher told the Democratic presidential nominee that Obama's tax plan would keep him from buying the business where he worked. Obama disputed that.

McCain took up the cause during the debate in hopes of demonstrating that his tax plan is better than Obama's. The two candidates went back and forth about Joe so much — his name came up about two dozen times — that the nation's media began scrambling for information about him.

Well, it turns out Joe the Plumber is not a licensed plumber. Wurzelbacher told The Associated Press that he doesn't need a license to do the residential plumbing work he performs for a small company. He is a plumbing apprentice in a work force development program the state oversees.

Wurzelbacher was besieged with interview requests Thursday as reports erupted that he was not registered to vote. He is and that's how Redfern got involved.

Wurzelbacher has been registered since 1992 and for the first time this year voted in a partisan primary as a Republican, said Linda Howe, director of the Lucas County Board of Elections.

Howe said that on the registration rolls, his last name is spelled with an "o" instead of a "u" — Worzelbacher. She said that when Wurzelbacher signs his name to vote, it's hard to tell if the letter is an "o" or "u."

Redfern said at a press conference that the potential impact of a lawsuit filed by Ohio Republicans could disenfranchise Wurzelbacher, Redfern and House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering. The GOP lawsuit deals with mismatched names on public records.

"I'll stand up for Joe the Plumber even though he may vote Republican," Redfern said.

Redfern said that his name and Husted's on voter registration forms are not the same as they are on Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Social Security records.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that she says could disenfranchise about 200,000 of the nearly 666,000 voters who have registered since Jan. 1. The names on those residents on voter registration forms don't precisely match with their names on driver's licenses or Social Security numbers.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has ordered Brunner to provide county boards of election by today with lists of those names. In many cases, the mismatches are due to errors such as misspellings, Redfern said.

While Wurzelbacher, Redfern and Husted were registered before Jan. 1 and would thus not be affected, the GOP's goal is to disenfranchise all those covered by mismatches, said Redfern.

DeWine denied that, and added that all disputed voters would receive at least a provisional ballot.

"To resort to scare tactics about suppression and disenfranchisement is a pretty shameful tactic," DeWine said. "I'm sticking up for every last person who is properly registered in the state of Ohio."

That presumably includes Joe.

Contact this reporter

at (614) 224-1608 or

whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.