Tell Your State Legislator to Take A Break on Voting Laws
The Ohio Senate has recommended another change in the law regarding voting procedures to correct some of the issues that came up with the November election. There were problems with counting provisional ballots and the forms required to complete in order to cast a legitimate provisional vote. There was a lawsuit over early voting during the last weekend before the election. There were issues with the hours of operation at the local level for early voting, and the sending out of early voting applications to every registered voter. There were long lines for early voting and still issues with identification that need to be addressed. The voting process in Ohio needs major reform, but this should not be done during the lame duck session.
There are a couple of weeks left in the legislative session, and so limited time for debate or discussion. There is not the time for constituents to pay attention with all the other issues at both the State and National level. We have seen the last two pieces of voting legislation passed during the lame duck session of the Ohio Congress. These previous changes have resulted in dozens of lawsuits and a petition drive. We must stop passing these awful changes to the voting laws. We need time to see draft legislation, and comment on these changes. We need time to allow both sides to point out the problems with the law so that mistakes do not continue to be passed. For example, the confusing Provisional Ballot Affirmation form, the fact that immigrants were being challenged at the polling place in violation of federal law, and passports and military ID not included as a legitimate form of identification were all previous mistakes. Ask your legislator to take a break from passing controversial voting legislation during the lame duck session. Ask them to wait until 2013 to work on a bipartisan bill that will not end up in court.
Ohio House of Representatives Contacts
Respond by December 1 directly to your House or Senate Member. Their contact information is listed above.
Save a copy of the body of your comments or drop us an email about your phone call --send them to advocacy (at) neoch(dot) org for our records at the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.
We have added a single sheet alert that you can print out and distribute here.