Ohio House members have voted for a bill that gets rid of that week when voters can both register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day. It also gets rid of weekend walk up voting the weekend before the election. It changes rules for mail in voting and provisional ballots. And it creates a voter registration database that shares information between state agencies to check accuracy of registrations. Republican Representative Robert Mecklenborg says the idea behind his bill is to make it easier for Ohioans to vote.
Robert Mecklenborg: get rid of the issues before voter comes on election day and this bill is designed to do that.
Mecklenborg says his bill makes sure voters in all Ohio counties are treated equally.
Robert Mecklenborg: We simply cannot have 88 different counties applying 88 different standards to the registration process, the voting process and the counting process.
But Democratic Representative Bob Hagan says this bill is what he calls a weapon of mass deception. He says he’s embarrassed that majority Republicans support the proposal that he sees as a partisan ploy.
Bob Hagan: Why don’t you be honest with yourself and the people of Ohio? Why don’t you just try to be honest that you are worried about the next election and you are worried and worried about making sure fewer and fewer Democrats go to the polls? That’s what it is.
Democratic African American lawmaker Clayton Luckie says the bill reminds him of situations in the past when minorities faced barriers to voting. He says the legislature should remember weekend opportunities to vote make it easier for voters to cast ballots.
Clayton Luckie: Times are hard. People are working 2, 3 or 4 jobs to make it happen. And they might not have that opportunity. You take away the Saturday and Sunday before the Election. What sense does that make?
Democrats warn taking away weekend early voting opportunities will lead to long lines on Election day. Attorney Kathleen Burke says this bill will hit some people particularly hard.
Kathleen Burke: It manipulates the rules of the game to specifically hurt groups of voters. Elderly voters, urban voters, low income voters, young voters and will strongly hurt participation in our elections. That’s voter suppression.
But Republican Representative Terry Boose isn’t buying that argument.
Terry Boose: I can tell you I have very high unemployment in my district. I can tell you it’s a rural district and there aren’t very many people in my district who get to walk to their polling places as there are in more urban areas. And I’m just tired of hearing that it’s you guys who are getting abused by this.
One of the Republican backers of the bill, Representative Lou Blessing, says Democrats need to remember this.
Lou Blessing: When you raise issues about urban counties are different than the rules, I agree with that. But go talk to the judges, and if you want to get partisan on this…it’s not our judges that are saying this, are saying you have to treat all of the counties the same so it’s either a damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
In the end, the bill did pass….pretty much along party lines. The bill now goes to the Ohio Senate.