Yesterday, Secretary of State Jon Husted took a step towards improving voter access by announcing the availability of an online change of address system for existing voter registrations. That’s one step but there is a long way to go to making voting accessible, fair, and equal in the state of Ohio.
Dismayed by election officials’ decisions to block early in-person voting in several counties, voting advocates called upon Secretary Husted and the Boards of Elections in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Lucas, and Summit counties to reconsider the recent decisions to deny in person voting opportunities during evening and weekends.
“Expanded access to early voting opportunities – both by mail and in person – has been hugely successful with voters and reduced lines on Election Day,” said Carrie Davis, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “While Secretary Husted is to be commended for expanding access to voting by mail, it is disappointing that the Secretary and several county Boards of Elections have rolled back successful early in-person voting hours in some of the counties hit hardest by long lines in 2004.
Secretary Husted and other elections officials are indeed turning the clock back. The three busiest days of early in person voting have already been taken away and in person voting had been ordered to stop the Friday before the election. A projected 105,000 voters statewide used these three days to vote in person in 2008. Now Husted and other elections officials are taking away voters’ ability to vote in person all evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays during the early vote period. In Franklin County, for instance, 82% of all in-person early votes were cast during these times.
“We are alarmed by the cuts to early voting and its impact on African-American voters in particular, who as the numbers clearly show, heavily relied on early voting to cast their ballots in 2008,” said Sonia Gill, from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Extended hours for early voting has been the standard practice in Ohio for the last several elections and we are perplexed as to why these counties are not offering the same service to voters in what is expected to be a high turnout presidential election year.”
African-Americans overwhelmingly relied upon early in-person voting in 2008: In Cuyahoga County, African-Americans made up only 26 percent of the county population, but 56 percent of early in-person voters.
Given the urban counties where Secretary Husted and other election officials have stripped early voting hours, it appears that these counties are in the danger zones of once again having the long lines of 2004, both on Election Day and during business hours of Boards of Elections. Many counties have greatly consolidated precincts since 2008, and are especially at risk for overcrowding.
“Early voting has become part of the political process in Ohio. Extended hours and early voting for some communities has become a life blood. Without this blood these communities’ rights will be denied,” said Sam Gresham, chair of Common Cause Ohio.
“While today’s announcement improves the process of updating voter registrations, we sincerely hope that Secretary Husted and the election officials in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Lucas, and Summit counties reconsider their positions and vote to provide early in person voting opportunities for the communities that most need them,” the group stated yesterday.
The coalition of advocates includes the following groups: Advancement Project, Common Cause Ohio, Fair Elections Legal Network, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, League of Women Voters of Ohio, Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates, and Project Vote.