I’ve told you how Republicans are pushing to restrict voting rights, even going so far as to slip language in the SAVE Act that would let red states throw out millions of votes by married women.
Today we need to talk about Ohio.
Until this year, disabled and elderly voters had an easy time voting. They could fill out their ballot at home, with or without help, and have someone they trust drop their ballot off outside their local board of elections office.
Now, if you’re going to drop off a ballot for someone, you have to visit the office during business hours and sign paperwork identifying yourself as the person assisting an Ohio voter.
If the state finds a single issue with the information you provide on that form, you can be charged with a fifth-degree felony. That’s a risk a lot of voters won’t want to take, especially in today’s political environment.
Folks, no registered voter should be afraid to vote, or of helping someone else cast their vote. But if it were up to Republicans, fewer of us would still be eligible to vote in this election.
Remember Cleta Mitchell and the Public Interest Legal Foundation we talked about before? That’s the group trying to purge voter registrations in at least six states.
It turns out Cleta Mitchell is leading the same effort in Ohio through another group called the Election Integrity Network (or EIN) – a joint effort by members of another group I’ve told you about: the Council for National Policy.
According to reporting from The Guardian, The New Republic, and CREW, the Election Integrity Network played a key role in the effort to purge thousands of voters from the rolls in Licking County. They targeted Licking County because the population saw an increase in Black and Asian residents.
For those outside of Ohio, THAT’S MY DISTRICT!
At the state level, news broke last month that election officials “have received thousands of voter registration challenges… from locals identifying themselves as members of the Election Integrity Network.”
The EIN also helped GOP lawmakers push a bill (HB 472) to force counties to replace all voting machines and give “citizens groups” like EIN the power to force hand-counted elections in specific counties.
It’s obvious why Republican powerbrokers would want to get rid of voting machines. Hand-counting votes would delay declaring a winner in Ohio next month. It also makes recounts more difficult and easier to manipulate.
I don’t even want to imagine why they’d force counties to REPLACE their current voting machines with new ones.
Last year, Ohio enacted “the most restrictive voter photo ID law in America,” requiring a photo ID, not just a social security number, to register to vote. The ballot rejection rate rose more than tenfold compared to past elections, just months before we voted on protecting women’s reproductive rights.
We’re just one of 27 states to enact restrictive new laws around voter registration. These laws don’t just make it harder to register; they also open the door for Republican attorneys like Cleta Mitchell and groups like the EIN to swoop in and disenfranchise countless voters across the country.
I don’t have an easy fix to stop this assault on our democracy, but I will work with my colleagues in Congress to pursue every solution possible to safeguard our voting rights.
The first step is getting there.
Jerrad Christian
Democrat for OH-12
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