June Updates – It’s heating up in Ohio
Fair Districts Updates
After more than six months of hard work, and thanks to the incredible efforts of thousands of volunteers across Ohio, our Fair Districts coalition alone has collected more than 170,000 signatures across 88 counties for the Citizens Not Politicians Amendment. Special thanks to everyone who has dedicated your time and resources to help make this signature collection effort a huge success!
With the signature collection phase of the campaign soon coming to a close, we are looking forward to strong voter education efforts throughout the summer and fall to make sure once the amendment is on the ballot it passes in November. First we will celebrate when signatures are turned in, then we’ll let you know how you can get involved!
Please join us for our June Fair Districts Huddle on June 12 at 6pm with featured special guest Dave Daley, author of Rat F***ed and Unrigged. We’ll also share updates and discuss summer plans for our redistricting campaign efforts.
Register for June 12 Fair Districts Huddle
Special Session = Campaign Finance Rush Job
Last week, Gov. Mike DeWine and Republican lawmakers did everything in their power to take advantage of a special session that DeWine had called to fix the issue of President Biden being on Ohio’s November ballot. Their priorities became clear as Special Session House Bill 1 – “Foreign Money ban” and (then) House Bill 2 – the bill to make sure President Biden is on Ohio’s ballot passed both chambers and were signed into law by Gov. DeWine over the weekend.
There was little opportunity for public testimony, and legislative leaders didn’t pay much attention to what was presented to them (here’s a link to my testimony). Unfortunately, House Bill 1 fails to create greater transparency to make it easier to spot foreign interference or corruption. It does give special powers to the Attorney General to investigate alleged campaign finance violations – and these investigations could easily be weaponized. Once again state legislators were deliberately going around voters in their rushed attempt to stop the momentum of a citizen initiative.
It’s clear what we must do for the next six months—Fight for Fair Districts and defend the right to vote!
Voting and Elections Updates
Early voting is underway in 11 counties for Ohio’s 6th Congressional District election to fill Bill Johnson’s vacant seat.
- Mailed ballots must be postmarked by June 10 (or taken to your county board of elections on election day).
- Polls will be open 6:30am-7:30pm on June 11.
Contact your local board of elections if you need to find your polling location or have questions.
You’re invited to our first Election Protection Summit on July 13 in Columbus for poll workers, election protection poll monitors, or anyone interested in being more involved in helping voters and keeping our elections safe and secure. Join us with our friends from the Ohio Voting Rights Coalition as we gather to celebrate our work and strategize for November. Lunch and swag will be provided, and we’re working on a great lineup of speakers and panelists. The event will include breakout sessions focused on roles of poll monitors, poll workers, peacekeepers and more! Come learn about how we can all support voters in this critical year.
RSVP for July 13 EP Summit
In voting legislative news, we’re keeping our eye on the 256 page House Bill 472 in the Homeland Security Committee (and its companion Senate Bill 274) – an extremely expensive, unnecessary and cumbersome bill focused on turning our elections infrastructure on its head. This extreme voting bill with estimated costs exceeding $200M would: decommission every election machine in our state, create excessive and undue burden on Boards of Elections, and additional barriers for voters, and provide hand counting options to counties. But the bill feeds a harmful and fabricated narrative that noncitizens are voting in our elections. The bill sets the stage for voter challenges from anti-voter extremists.
Ohio Voting Rights Coalition has created this one-pager of HB 472 talking points so we’re ready to submit testimony at the next hearing.
While he hasn’t come out in support for HB 472, Secretary of State LaRose is also using the harmful and false “noncitizen” narrative to announce another voter purge ahead of the November election. Regardless of last year’s sweeping changes to our voter laws and additional provisions for verification, he recently announced expanded efforts to verify citizenship status on Ohio voter rolls.
Identifying and combating mis/disinformation with accurate and fact-based resources is a key priority for our Election Protection efforts this year. Our team hosts multiple ways to get involved while we build a democracy-defending online community. If you would like to join our social media posting parties, help keep an eye out for misleading information, or help us track bad actors, please contact Kelly Dufour, voting and elections manager at kdufour@commoncause.org. We have simple ways for you to get involved from the comfort of your home.
Staff Updates
I am pleased to announce that CJ Wilson has joined our team as our Southwest Regional Coordinator. CJ recently graduated from the University of Dayton with a political science degree and has worked in grassroots mobilization with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood Ohio. CJ is ready to hit the ground running meeting and supporting volunteers in the field.
Common Cause Ohio will continue to fight this multi-prong approach of redistricting reform while never losing sight of the need to protect and the voter’s access to the ballot.
We appreciate your support of our work, making us strong enough to take back our state from the power-hungry politicians who are not representing the will of Ohio voters.