Comprehensive Ohio Election Reform Legislation

Advancement Project's Recommendations Makes it into Comprehensive Ohio Election Reform Legislation

Today, the Ohio legislature introduced election reform legislation, the Elections Enhancement Bill, HB 260 which has the potential to bring about sweeping change to the state and an improved access to the ballot box for voters. We applaud Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and the state legislature for moving in a direction that embraces the ideal of Election Day as the great equalizer – it is the one day where if all was right in our democracy, it would not matter if a person is rich, poor, black, white, educated or not, we all would have the same amount of power.

Earlier this year, Advancement Project made a strong push for needed election reform to prevent reoccurrence of breakdowns in election administration that occurred in the months leading up to the 2008 general election. In particular, we recommended in a memo to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office and the Joint Working Group of Election Advocates improved procedures to the way provisional ballots and challenges were being handled.

Couched in feel-good phrases such as “voter security” and “anti-voter fraud,” these measures limit voter registration, turn voters away from polling places, and cast doubt on the validity of ballots. Voters targeted by caging are often the most vulnerable: soldiers deployed overseas, people of color, those who are unfamiliar with their rights under the law, and those who cannot spare the time, effort, and expense of proving that their registration is valid.

Advancement Project’s recommendation on voter challenges (which is in the bill) calls for, amending the code to prohibit challenges based solely on a mailing to the voter that was returned as undeliverable, or election officials’ inability to “match” the voter’s information with information in the state driver’s license or Social Security database. Additionally, we proposed that Ohio’s challenger statute should be amended to codify Secretary Brunner’s directives concerning challenges to the extent that they require that voters receive notice and an opportunity to be heard prior to their removal from the voting rolls.

Advancement Project has been doing voter protection work in Ohio since 2004. Our years of experience in Ohio reveals that provisional ballots instead of functioning as a fail-safe means of voting, often creates a serious risk of disenfranchisement.

Based on our recommendations, the Elections Enhancement Bill, HB 260 minimizes the overuse and undercounting of provisional ballots by amending the “change of address” and provisional ballot rules to permit voters who have moved to update their voter registration on Election Day and vote a regular ballot at the correct polling location. The legislation also seeks to amend the code to abolish the wrong precinct rule and require that provisional ballots cast by voters at any precinct in the county be counted for elections in which the voter is eligible, as well as the clarification of circumstances that constitute poll worker error and the evidence that demonstrates poll worker error, thereby requiring the counting, or partial counting, of a provisional ballot.

Ohio’s 2008 general election has been heralded as a success. The meltdown Ohio voters experienced in the 2004 general election is a distant memory and in many regards, Ohio voters faired significantly better in 2008 than in 2004. However, some of Ohio’s election rules harm voters and election reform is needed to prevent breakdowns in election administration.

ENDS

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