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TAKE ACTION TO STRENGTHEN OHIO'S DEMOCRACY
Tell Ohio Senators to vote NO on this terrible bill
Ohio Senate Bill 153 is a massive election bill now in the Ohio Senate that threatens to exclude thousands of eligible Ohio voters from participating in our elections, debilitate Ohio’s direct democracy, and bury local Boards of Elections in meaningless bureaucracy.
The excessive and convoluted measures used in SB 153 would create confusion in the voter registration process and result in application rejections and approval delays that could prevent some eligible voters from participating in elections and even subject Ohioans to criminal charges.
Let’s call this bill what it really is: a way for the politicians to hold onto their power by making it harder for regular Ohio citizens to participate in our democracy. SB 153 would :
- Make it harder for small businesses, independent candidates, and citizen groups to get onto the ballot: Proposed rules would make collecting signatures for things like a local liquor option, qualifying as a candidate for a municipal election, and local and statewide referendums to repeal a bad law much harder and more expensive. Citizen organizers and volunteers are even threatened with politically motivated investigations to discourage people from trying to make a difference in their communities.
- Ban voter drop boxes, eliminating a vital voting access option: Voter drop boxes offer a safe way for voters to return their absentee ballots without relying on the mail or being limited by voting hours. Taking them away makes voting harder for working people, caregivers, and people with disabilities who may not be able to get to the polls during normal voting hours or may not have reliable transportation. Banning drop boxes, secured by 24-hour surveillance, tamper- and fire-proof construction and managed by bipartisan teams of election workers, also makes voting harder for Ohioans in rural areas, who may have limited mail services.
- Allow harmless database mismatches to trigger felony charges and invalidate ballots: This bill relies on new and constant cross-checks between multiple databases to verify voter applicants’ information, and these databases have different updating cycles and will flag insignificant differences in applicant information. Something as simple as the absence of an applicant’s middle initial in one database or an applicant being “Joe” in one database and “Joseph” in another would be enough to trigger a hold on an eligible voter’s application or force a voter to vote on a provisional ballot.
Applicants whose information is flagged by Board of Election workers in the application process are sent a notification they must respond to within just 14 days– if the applicant doesn’t respond they can be charged with a felony! And for those whose name has been flagged when they go to vote, eligible voters must cast their vote using a provisional ballot, which will only be counted if the voter can get to the BMV to prove their identity during a tight time window. This means thousands and thousands of eligible Ohio voters will be robbed of their right to vote.
- Force local Board of Elections to waste time and money they don’t have: The continuous monitoring of these different databases would be managed by election workers, who would be taken away from their real work of maintaining secure elections and helping voters. Election officials would also be forced to become petition police for local candidates, business, and citizen groups trying to qualify for the ballot. Boards of Elections are doing their best to keep up with the major election law overhauls pushed on them in recent years, but the administrative burdens required by SB153, none of which are given additional funding or resources to execute, will push them further and further behind.
This attack on our elections and our petition process is just one more cynical ploy to rig the system in favor of powerful special interests, taking away power from Ohio citizens.
Take action now to help stop SB 153.
TAKE ACTION TO STRENGTHEN OHIO'S DEMOCRACY
Thank you for taking the time to act! Right now, there are no General Assembly members associated with your address. This could mean you are not an Ohio resident, or that you have newly elected members in both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate, which has not yet updated their new member contacts. If it is the latter, please try again in a few days. Please reach out to Elisabeth Warner with any questions at ewarner@lwvohio.org.
Thank you!
THANK YOU FOR TAKING ACTION!
Thank you for speaking up to protect Ohio's direct democracy!
Ohio's SB 153 is a 5-alarm fire for direct democracy– we have to stop it. Democracy isn't promised, it's protected, so keep going by calling your state representatives and spread the word by sharing this action alert here.
Find your Ohio legislators and get tips on how to make effective phone calls to lawmakers here.
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