The seven most populous Ohio counties have 75% of the state's attorneys, including Cuyahoga and Summit in Northeast Ohio. Meanwhile, 82 of 88 Ohio counties are considered underserved, which according to the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation, means there are more than 700 people in population for every attorney.
In some cases, there are much more. For instance, Harrison County on the eastern side of the state, has roughly 15,000 residents, but only 13 active attorneys.
The Rural Practice Incentive Program, which was created last year through the Ohio Department of Higher Education, hopes to address this shortage by repaying student loans for qualifying attorneys in these communities.
We'll start Wednesday's "Sound of Ideas" discussing the program and the legal gap in the state with Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy.
Later in this hour, Ohio will hold its primary on March 19 where voters in each party will make their choices for U.S. president, U.S. Senate and numerous other races, including many judicial races. Primary election winners will go on to the general election in November.
Voters did not always have a say in who would be the parties' candidates. Primaries came into play in the early and mid-twentieth century as part of a progressive push to give the people more power in selecting the candidates vying to represent them.
We're going to talk about the history of primaries and how Ohio's primary works. We will also dig into some of the races voters will be deciding on March 19 and how this all shapes up as we head toward Nov. 5.
Finally, the director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections joins us to talk about this week's public test and demonstration of the voting equipment that will be used to tabulate the primary results.
The public is encouraged to attend, but you have to register in advance.
Guests:
-Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, Ohio Supreme Court
-Tom Sutton, Ph.D., Interim Provost and Professor of Political Science, Baldwin Wallace University
-Matt Cox, President & Founder, Capitol Partners
-Ifeolu Claytor, Treasurer, Northeast Ohio Young Black Democrats
-Anthony Perlatti, Director, Cuyahoga County Board of Elections
