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Democratic statewide candidates unite in opposition to voter discrimination bill

Saturday, December 10, 2005
 

Democratic statewide candidates unite in opposition to voter discrimination bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                           December 10, 2005
Contact: Brian Rothenberg, Comm. Director                    Phone: 614-221-6563

COLUMBUS – Banding together out of concern over voter suppression, Ohio Democratic candidates for statewide office urged the Ohio Senate today to vote down a bill with voter suppression provisions such as stringent ID requirements.

Among the candidates joining together in protest of the bill’s provisions are Major Paul Hackett and Rep. Sherrod Brown in the U.S. Senate race; Rep. Ted Strickland in the Ohio Gubernatorial race; Subodh Chandra and St. Sen. Marc Dann in the Ohio Attorney General’s race; and Jennifer Brunner in the Ohio Secretary of State race.  

Ms. Brunner initiated an online petition that has generated hundreds of signatures since Thursday night asking the Ohio Senate to reconsider provisions of H.B. 3.

Among the concerns about the bill are requirements for ID to be shown at the polls that matches residency. This has led to concerns over:  

• Disabled voter who can’t sign their own name has to execute a power of attorney in order to vote
• Every time you vote you must have an i.d. on hand
• The i.d. requirement must have your current address, if not you have to cast a provisional ballot
• Many college identification cards don’t list an address
• Makes it harder to get initiatives on the ballot by increasing the signature requirement to file a petition
• There is not a clear, uniform  standard for counting provisional ballots in Ohio

 

Sign the petition to oppose voter discrimination

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Ohio Democratic candidates released the following statements regarding the Voter Discrimination provision:

 

• "Ohio Republicans should be ashamed of themselves," Strickland said. "Instead of working in a bipartisan way to protect every Ohioan's right to vote, they're seeking to suppress votes in a power grab to protect their culture of corruption." 

-- Ted Strickland, Ohio Candidate for Governor

• "My parents immigrated to the U.S. from India, so like a lot of Ohioans who grew up with first- or second-generation family members, I grew up hearing from people who knew first hand why American democracy was so important and how lucky we were to live in a country where you don't have to produce documents to prove you have rights but are assumed to have them like anyone else.  H.B.3 is a betrayal of the things my parents love about this country. 
  
  The tragic hypocrisy of what the Republicans have proposed in H.B. 3 is that while their party is sending Ohioans and other Americans off to bring democracy to Iraq, they are working so hard to take democracy away from Ohioans here at home."

-- Subodh Chandra, Ohio Democratic Candidate for Attorney General

 

• “Not only are the voter suppression’s in H.B. 3 wrong, they are probably unconstitutional.”

--St. Sen. Marc Dann, Ohio Democratic Candidate for Attorney General

 

• "H.B. 3 will lead Ohio to the bottom of yet another national ranking … voter participation.  Ohio Republicans are now shamelessly attacking the ability for citizens to cast a vote after 12 years of proving they couldn’t be trusted with it.  Any Governor worth his salt would veto this bill on the principle that Ohio will only return to greatness when we honor the rights and opinions of all of our citizens."

-- Hugh Quill, Ohio Democratic Candidate for State Treasurer

 

• "Every Ohioan should be concerned about the effects of this hastily crafted legislation.  The GOP will be responsible for thousands of Ohioans who will be unable to vote on Election Day."

--Richard Cordray, Candidate for State Treasurer

 

• "This bill is wrong for Ohioans and the chaos that it will cause on Election Day is an enormous problem for the State.  I will continue to fight it and work to stop this Voter Discrimination bill from becoming law

--Judge Jennifer Brunner, Ret. Ohio Democratic Candidate for Secretary of State.