This article is part of US Democracy Day, a nationwide collaboration on September 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations report on how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org
A up-to-date, nonpartisan report on democracy found that some members of Ohio’s congressional delegation achieved “near perfect” results while others scored very poorly, “showing that democracy is not yet being experienced equally” in the state, the report’s authors said.
This Democracy Scorecard 2024 According to a release announcing the results, Common Cause reviewed the actions of members of the U.S. Congress on “voting rights, Supreme Court ethics and other reforms.”
The report called the 118th Congress “one of the most dysfunctional in American history.”
“In truth, the first year of this Congress was the least productive first year of any Congress in nearly 100 years,” Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomon wrote at the beginning of the report.
The study found that only 78 stand-alone bills were passed, representing less than 1% of all bills introduced.
Solomon also criticized Congress for failing to “meaningfully respond to the ongoing ethics crisis at the Supreme Court.”
Still, the report found a huge overall enhance in the number of members of the U.S. Congress who took a “pro-Democracy position” in their legislative votes and cosponsors. The number of members with perfect scores jumped from 58 in the 2020 scorecard to 117 this year.
The study, led by Senior Legislative Director Aaron Scherb, found that five Ohio state members scored “perfect or near perfect,” while three received a score of “zero.”
Those with perfect scores were U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S. Representative Emilia Sykes. “Near-perfect” scores were given to U.S. Representatives Joyce Beatty, Marcy Kaptur and Greg Landsman.
Those who received a zero in the survey include U.S. Representatives Warren Davidson and Jim Jordan, as well as U.S. Senator and Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance.
The organization has tracked congressional votes and co-sponsorships on legislation including the Freedom to Vote Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a resolution to amend the Constitution regarding “contributions and expenditures to influence elections,” a measure to include a citizenship question on the U.S. census, another to require documented proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, and even votes to expel U.S. Representative George Santos.
The Freedom to Vote Act would expand voter registration and access to voting through methods such as automatic and same-day registration or mail-in voting. It would also limit voter removals, as language of account. This John Lewis Act aims to address voting discrimination and equal access to voting. None of the bills have passed, as have the Constitutional Amendment Resolution, the U.S. Census Act, or the Evidence of Citizenship Act.
“As voters prepare to go to the polls this fall, they must make a decision: between democracy and authoritarianism, between freedom and oppression, between accountability and corruption,” she wrote.
The Ohio chapter of Common Cause has been vocal in its criticism of the redistricting process over the past few years, which includes drawing districts for congressional candidates. The state branch of the advocacy group also fully supported a proposed constitutional amendment (now called November’s Issue 1) that would reform the redistricting process by creating a 15-member citizen-led redistricting commission to replace the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which is made up of elected officials.
