It appears that attorney Marc Elias, who also served as attorney for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, has found another voter ID law worth taking a look at. Gov. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican who was re-elected last November by a 25-point majority, signed the bill into law HB 458 last Friday, among others to strengthen voter identification. That same day, Elias’s office sued Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who was later dispatched press release calling it the “new voter suppression bill.”
“@EliasLawGrupa Attorneys representing the Northeast Ohio Homeless Coalition, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Alliance for Retired Ohio Americans and the Union Veterans Council filed a lawsuit challenging […] new voter suppression law https://t.co/4sc3n1hnX7
— Elias Law Group (@EliasLawGroup) January 8, 2023
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Northeast Ohio Homeless Coalition, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans and the Union Veterans Council and also mentions that the group is working to “challenge these laws that will disproportionately harm adolescent people . elderly and Black Ohioans, military service members and other Ohioans living overseas.
Not only does the press release operate buzzwords like “voter suppression,” but it completely dismisses the notion of concerns about voter fraud. “While voter fraud is virtually non-existent in Ohio, voter suppression is unfortunately alive and well,” it reads in part.
In addition to retweeting the legal group, Elias has also previously and since then tweeted various threats and promises of a lawsuit.
Ohio will be sued. Stand by. https://t.co/POQGIuroKz
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 6, 2023
“This is the first lawsuit filed against HB 458, and specifically the first voter suppression bill, to be passed after the 2022 midterm elections.”https://t.co/BC8C1lfcRK
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 7, 2023
I promised that Ohio would be sued if Governor DeWine signed the GOP voter suppression bill. I always keep my promises. https://t.co/BC8C1lfcRK
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 7, 2023
Republicans should know that I keep my word. https://t.co/in9fAbcJkk
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 7, 2023
In addition to his incessant tweets since the day the lawsuit was filed, Elias has also been tweeting article from the Columbus Dispatch, including a segment bragging about how quickly his group filed the lawsuit.
“The lawsuit was filed within hours of DeWine signing it on behalf of groups representing teachers, retirees, veterans and people experiencing homelessness.” https://t.co/tGtlDW6aSd
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 9, 2023
Secretary LaRose also tweeted, showing that he is prepared to fight and is not afraid of being sued. Not only have the secretary and state lawmakers responded to the call for stricter voter ID rules, but, as LaRose’s tweet highlights, such rules have been upheld in the courts before.
No wonder lawyer and shameless self-promoter Hillary Clinton @marceelias is taking aim at Ohio’s business by suing to overturn our photo voter ID law and weaken our elections.
It was tried in Texas and it didn’t work, but it won’t work in Ohio either.https://t.co/Qwk7XEUOcV
— Frank LaRose (@FrankLaRose) January 10, 2023
Other legal provisions referred to in section press release from Secretary LaRose’s office, include:
- Eliminating early voting on the Monday before Election Day to give our county boards of elections adequate time to prepare for Tuesday’s elections. The bill provides the Secretary of State with the discretion to reallocate those six hours of early in-person voting that were previously available by adding hours from Monday to Friday of the preceding week;
- Eliminating August special elections – steep, low-turnout, and unnecessary elections administered by our county boards – unless they involve a political subdivision or school district facing a fiscal emergency;
- Shortening the deadline for submitting absentee ballots by mail from noon on the third day before Election Day to the end of the business day on the seventh day before Election Day to allow adequate time to process applications and to prevent voters from being inadvertently disenfranchised by waiting too close to the day elections.
The press release also included a statement from the secretary. “Ohioans clearly support rigorous photo ID when voting, and we have found a commonsense way to make this happen that ensures voters are not disenfranchised,” he said. “No single piece of legislation is a silver bullet, but we are once again showing Ohioans that we take their concerns seriously and are committed to continually improving our choices.”
It also cited support for voter ID according to multiple polls, indicating that support is consistent across demographic groups:
NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist: 79% of voters believe government-issued photo ID should be required, including majorities of Democrats (57%), Republicans, Independents, whites and nonwhites.
Pew: 76% of voters, including 61% of Democrats, support “requiring all voters to show a government-issued photo ID when voting.”
CNN(opens in a up-to-date window): 64% of voters, including 65% of minority voters, 69% of independents and 65% of moderates, believe that requiring a photo ID would make elections fairer.
“Fair Elections” project.(opens in a up-to-date window): 77% of voters, including Republicans (92%), Independents (75%), and Democrats (63%), support requiring voter ID 64% of Black voters, 77% of Latino voters, and 76% of low-income voters reject the idea that showing ID card at the ballot box is a “burden”.
University of Monmouth: 4 in 5 Americans (80%) support requiring voters to show photo ID.
Grinnell School: 56% of voters oppose eliminating state laws requiring photo ID
Fox News(opens in a up-to-date window): 77% of voters believe a state or federal photo ID should be required.
Rasmussen: 75% of voters say photo ID is necessary for a “fair and secure election process,” while 85% of voters said requiring photo ID is “common sense.”
Elias’ name may not sound familiar just because he’s Clinton’s lawyer, but also because of his 2021 antics Townhall mentioned. In a now-deleted tweet from April 1 of this year, he suggested that Georgia voters weren’t astute enough to vote by mail using their ID. Georgia’s voting rights were upheld. And when it comes to claims of voter suppression, the state saw record voter turnout. Former Governor Terry McAuliffe (D-VA), who ultimately lost to Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) in November of that year, also hired Elias in the weeks before the election, even though confident voters if he lost, he would not question the election results. This raised eyebrows not only for Elias, but also for McAuliffe.
When he’s not tweeting about voter ID laws as “voter suppression,” Elias seems to be obsessively tweeting and retweeting about how radical he thinks Republicans are.
There are no moderators at the GOP conference. There are only madmen and cowards. https://t.co/k10fTonH1F
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 8, 2023
There are no moderates in the GOP, only cowards. https://t.co/9u2kw6xpq8
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 10, 2023
There are no moderate Republicans.
There are only cowardly Republicans and radical Republicans.
— Rachel Vindman 🌻 (@natsechobbyist) January 10, 2023
