While lawmakers prepare to come back to the Statehouse after their summer break, we feature a rundown of some of the measures they may take up in the next few weeks - including those dealing with Medicaid expansion and JobsOhio. Beyond that, there are other controversial measures - the latest so-called Right to Work bill, called the "Workplace Freedom Bill", and the proposal known as the "Heartbeat Bill". Among the other bills are a measure to require cities, villages and counties to balance their budgets, a bill that seeks to deal with violent gun crimes in Ohio, and a ban on speed and red-light traffic cameras. Another bill would allow the family members of opiod addicts access to a drug which can stop an opiod overdose, and another would allow nursing home patients the legal right to set up surveillance equipment to protect them from abuse or neglect. One bill still being considered would eliminate the parental rights to convicted rapists regarding children conceived in those assaults.
And there two notable Republican sponsored bills on elections. One would eliminate special elections in February and August, and another would dramatically cut back early voting from 35 days before the election to 17 days, and would stop early voting on the weekend before the election. Earlier this year, two election law experts discussed changes to early voting. Dan Tokaji is a professor and senior fellow in election law at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. Stephen Brooks is also a professor and is Associate Director of the Ray C Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron.