As voting begins, those looking to energize voters of all kinds are working tough to knock on doors and get Ohioans to the polls.
Ohio Voice works on civic engagement throughout the year, but with the presidential election, a hotly contested U.S. Senate race, and a ballot initiative to overhaul the state’s redistricting process, this year saw multiple town halls and trainings designed to support the “historic ” election year, according to James Hayes, co-director of the Ohio Voice.
Hayes’ group is organizing events and working with the Ohio Voting Rights Coalition before and during Election Day to make sure voters get what they need. Many Ohio Voice groups engage with their Black voters and inform the groups about issues and candidates.
“Nothing can replace human-to-human conversations,” Hayes said. “There is a need to talk to voters; it requires intention.”
The canvassing covered many topics, but redistricting reform in Issue 1 emerged as part of conversations with voters about the impact of policy on issues vital to them.
Issue 1 would reform Ohio’s redistricting process by creating a citizen redistricting commission composed of five Republicans, five Democrats and five independents who would be selected by a bipartisan judicial panel to draw maps of the statehouses and Congressional districts demarcating voting districts in Ohio. all over the state.
The ballot initiative would replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission of politicians, which has repeatedly produced unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps in 2021 and 2022.
“Border freezing and redistricting are not necessarily the first issues on voters’ minds, but you realize that housing, environmental and economic issues impact all of these,” Hayes said.
Young Latino Network
Voter education is vital in any election, but it can be especially vital when it comes to issues on which voters may not be well versed.
“Gerrymandering doesn’t translate very well into Spanish,” said Selina Pagan, executive director of Young Latino Network, an aid organization that has had roots in northeast Ohio since 2002.
Pagan said the group planned to provide bilingual information about No. 1 to voters for educational purposes, but also because the summary adopted by the Ohio Board of Elections is “very confusing,” especially in a language other than the one in which it was written, supplemented ” jargon” that may not translate.
“The way it sounds in Spanish definitely influences someone to vote no without context,” Pagan said.
In addition to educating voters about Issue 1, Pagan said YLN has worked to register voters on time, educate voters about mail-in voting methods and knocked on more than 5,000 doors. With particular emphasis on the city of Cleveland, network volunteers talked to over 900 people.
“The (Hispanic) community has not previously had a political home or organizing body that can spearhead these types of voter engagement efforts,” Pagan told the Capital Journal. “We built it from scratch and we are sure to make a splash this year.”
The group collected more than 1,500 ballots containing a voting plan for the 2024 general election and also used phone banking and canvassing to provide polling place information and other nonpartisan information.
Now, with less than two weeks until the election, Pagan said the group is working to inform voters specifically about the issues that are most vital to the Latino community and how races like Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat and Supreme Court races Ohio influenced local effects.
“We want to get our community to think more tactically,” Pagan said. “That means creating a space where we can talk about how these items impact our daily lives.”
Children’s problems
Advocates for child care, hunger initiatives and education in the state work with parents and others affected by legislative and congressional decisions on these topics.
Everything from individual candidates in the districts where voters live to the overall redistricting reform proposed in Issue 1 could impact public and private education funding, how student debt for school breakfasts and lunches is handled, and changes to the state’s welfare system over children.
“We know there is a need for child care, we know child care workers need to be paid more, we know it takes more parents to be able to afford child care,” said Kelly Vyzral, senior health policy specialist for the Ohio Children’s Defense Fund.
The changes introduced in Issue 1 could make a difference when it comes to resource allocation in the state, Vyzral said.
“Legislative representation and how these districts are drawn reflect the voices that are heard,” Vyzral said. “You may not have a voice to advocate for fair school funding, and that’s a real problem in different parts of the state.”
To facilitate voters understand Statehouse candidates’ positions on issues like child care and education, the nonprofit Ohio Kids First created voting guidewhich contains responses to a questionnaire sent to each candidate for Ohio’s House and Senate seats.
“It is crucial to elect leaders who will put the needs of Ohio’s children at the center of our state legislature,” Rachel Selby, executive director of Ohio Kids First, said in a statement announcing the voter guide. “From the crisis in child care and quality early childhood education to access to health care and early intervention, Ohio’s children and their families face significant challenges and needs but are too often overlooked.”
The voter guide includes responses from 45 candidates for Ohio House of Representatives and six Ohio Senate candidates, answering questions about why they’re running, child care as a workforce issue, barriers to accessing affordable child care options, kindergarten readiness and infant and maternal mortality.
Disability
While many groups are rolling out their voter outreach plans in the weeks before the general election, voters with disabilities have experienced setbacks that they believe could impact their ability to vote.
“They are citizens, they have the right to vote,” said Than Johnson, former president of the Ohio Provider Resources Association and former CEO of Champaign Residential Services, Inc., an Urbana-based service provider for people with developmental disabilities.
Advocates for disabled voters in the state reacted sharply when Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued an order requiring people who deliver absentee ballots on behalf of another person to sign an “attestation” form, ensuring that they are not violating the law by providing the ballots. state for another person.
The case returned to federal case filed in 2023 by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and a disability rights advocate, which argued that Ohio’s newly amended voter ID law limits the ability to return absentee ballots and therefore violates federal law.
According to Johnson, for many Ohioans with disabilities, their caregivers are “essentially pseudo-parents” and are therefore the best people to facilitate count their votes.
“Many (Ohioans with disabilities) are very coherent and should be allowed to have their caregivers take them to vote,” Johnson said. “For me, the main support for these people are their caregivers.”
The court complaint alleged that the additional step of filling out the form creates restrictions on voting, including regulating when ballots can be dropped off (during election commission business hours), cutting off the ability of people casting ballots on behalf of others to employ the drop box for this purpose boxes.
A federal judge in this case made it possible for Ohioans with disabilities to employ the person of their choice to return absentee ballots, recognizing that the Voting Rights Act granted these voters that right.
After settling this case, LaRose issued a directive requiring suppliers to deliver postal ballots complete the certificate forms.
In full of drama Ohio Supreme Court case that challenged this directive, Ohio Supreme Court he chose not to rule on whether LaRose’s directive violated state law, ruling instead that the complaint to the court was not filed in time for them to make a decision.
“What’s disturbing to me is that we actually had what I would consider a restriction on the ability of these people to have the right to vote,” Johnson said. “But since (the Ohio Supreme Court decision) is at the very end of the process, it’s a decision we can’t help.”
Postal ballots must be received by local election commissions by the end of the day on October 29. Early voting in Ohio runs through November 3.
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