OPINION

Opinion: Ohio must act now to avoid another election debacle

Mike Brickner
Opinion contributor
Ohio's voting sticker.

Voters deserve clarity and reassurance about casting a ballot. But the on-again-off-again Ohio primary election last month has only left confusion and uncertainty in its wake. Legislators cannot allow this to happen again. They must act now to create a clear policy for how and when election officials can respond to unfolding events in a transparent and fair manner that protect voters’ rights and health as the COVID-19 crisis continues.

They must implement best practices recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, and provide resources to ensure local boards of elections can safely conduct elections that all Ohioans can access. We shouldn’t have to choose between public health and a functional democracy.

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Election officials must embrace technology to better communicate with voters. In the first few days of the COVID-19 crisis, Ohio’s local boards of elections were forced to quickly change over 150 polling locations based in nursing homes or senior centers. Affected voters received a postcard informing them of their new polling location. But with a rapidly unfolding chain of events, mail alone is simply not enough. Officials can contact voters faster via text message, email and automated phone calls.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections holds a meeting on Monday, March 16, 2020 to discuss if the the upcoming election will be held Tuesday.

In response to the polling location changes, All Voting is Local Ohio launched a texting campaign that reached 111,000 voters – the same tool we used since 2018 to reach over half a million Ohio voters at risk of purges. Nonpartisan voter rights groups stepped up, but it’s the responsibility of government officials to communicate to voters with the latest and most accurate information.

State legislators must remove barriers to no fault vote by mail immediately. Many voters simply can not vote by mail in the current crisis. 

Take Brenda Savage of Dayton, the caretaker of an adult daughter named Jessica who has significant disabilities. Jessica has a compromised immune system, sending her to the ER three times in a single week in 2019 due to pneumonia. Brenda quarantined her family on March 11 when the state confirmed community spread of COVID-19, and immediately mailed an application to vote by mail. But she had not received the ballot by March 16, the deadline for it to be mailed back to the board of elections.

Brenda was forced to choose between her and her daughter’s health and her fundamental right to vote. That cannot and must not happen in our democracy.  

Vote-by-mail forms rest on the customer service desk, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, at Kroger at Anderson Towne Center in Anderson Township.

In 2018, over 750 mail-in ballots were rejected in Franklin County alone because they arrived late. Nearly 90% arrived by the Friday after Election Day, suggesting voters were hampered by the slow speed of the mail system. Ohio Senate Bill 191, sponsored by Republican State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, would create an online absentee ballot application system and  reduce the time voters must wait to get their ballot. It should be immediately enacted for the November 2020 election. 

The COVID-19 pandemic also exposed the longstanding problem elections officials have recruiting poll workers, who tend to be seniors. Election Day work is often grueling, with a minimum 14-hour shift, required advance training, and low pay. It is time for state legislators to better incentivize poll workers by raising the minimum pay to compensate workers at least $15 an hour – a standard for a livable minimum wage – for training and working the polls on Election Day.

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The pool of eligible poll workers must be expanded. Ohio college students have the right to register to vote at their school or home address. However, an Ohio State University student from Akron is not allowed to serve as a poll worker in Franklin County if they have an Akron voter registration because Ohio law requires poll workers to be registered voters in the county where they serve. And in the current pandemic, students sent home from campus could not serve as poll workers in their home county if they had registered to vote on their college campus. Legislators should adopt rules to allow flexibility for college students to serve as poll workers in either location.

June LaPille, poll worker talks with a voter Tuesday November 3, 2015 at the Springdale Community Center. LaPille, 79, of Springdale a native of London, England, said it was her civic duty to volunteer after she became a U.S. citizen, she has been working the polls for about 20 years.

State lawmakers should also remove the blanket prohibition against people with a felony conviction from serving as poll workers. Our justice system is intended to rehabilitate and officials should be allowed to use their best judgment to assess applicants on a case-by-case basis. It makes little sense to prohibit people who have demonstrated that they have successfully reformed their lives from serving their community.

Ohio leaders have been lauded for the preventative actions they’ve taken to save lives in the COVID-19 pandemic. After a chaotic postponed primary election, it’s time for legislators and election officials to lead the way to ensure the November election – and all elections in the future – can withstand public health emergencies and keep our democracy intact.

Mike Brickner is Ohio state director of All Voting is Local, a collaborative campaign of the Leadership Conference Education Fund and a coalition of national civil rights groups fighting to expand and protect access to the ballot – before Election Day.

Mike Brickner, Ohio director of All Voting is Local