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Columbus, OH — As Ohio House Democrats continue their weeklong Freedom to Vote Town Hall Tour, every day this week the Ohio Democratic Party will be digging in deeper to harmful provisions included in statehouse Republicans’ anti-voter legislation that takes Ohio backward in the fight for voting rights.

Today, ODP is highlighting the GOP hypocrisy surrounding the anti-voter bill. Ohio Republicans continue to claim credit and tout the success of the 2020 elections, which was due in large part to absentee voting and dropbox availability, the same methods of voting that are under attack in this bill. If the 2020 election was a success, we should be expanding Ohioans’ access to absentee voting and dropboxes, not attacking it.

Republicans also like to claim that their anti-voter bill is about election integrity, but we know that also rings hollow as even Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose has admitted that voter fraud is ‘exceedingly rare.’ Meanwhile, LaRose continues to stand by silently as his fellow Republicans spout lies about election fraud in the 2020 election and continue to promote the Big Lie. So if LaRose is really worried about election integrity, he should start condemning statements made by Josh Mandel and Jane Timken.

“For Ohio Republicans, partisan politics will always trump election integrity. While Democrats have offered proposals that would make our elections safer while expanding access to the voting booth, the Ohio GOP is only interested in fabricating solutions to problems that don’t exist,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

As Gayle King said on CBS This Morning recently about the bill: “It seems like fixing a problem that doesn’t exist, doesn’t it?” 

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Columbus, OH — As Ohio House Democrats continue their weeklong Freedom to Vote Town Hall Tour, every day this week the Ohio Democratic Party will be digging in deeper to harmful provisions included in statehouse Republicans’ anti-voter legislation that takes Ohio backward in the fight for voting rights. 

Today, ODP is focused on provisions in the bill that will limit Ohioans’ ability to vote by absentee ballot, including language that would require two forms of identification to even request an absentee ballot and that would cut off Ohioans’ ability to request an absentee ballot 10 days out from an election, removing a week that Ohioans were previously able to do so. 

More than 3.5 million Ohioans voted absentee last year, more than half of all ballots cast. Adding more barriers to absentee voting would harm Ohioans who want to exercise their right to vote, including servicemembers serving overseas whose ballots aren’t exempt from the 10 day rule, working Ohioans who may not be able to make it to the polls on Election Day and many lower-income Ohioans who don’t have access to two forms of ID. 

“Absentee voting isn’t a luxury, it’s how many Ohioans exercise their right to vote, including Ohio servicemembers and working families. Ohioans already have enough barriers to overcome in order to make their voices heard, and now Republican politicians are inserting even more confusion and challenges into the process. That’s unacceptable,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

As recent commentary from the Ohio Capital Journal succinctly put it: “These are hoops to jump through that discourage voting, not encourage it. That’s how you suppress voter engagement.”

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In Case You Missed It, Cincinnati.com today did a deep dive on Mike DeWine hemorrhaging support among Ohio Republicans, putting him in an increasingly weak position as he tries to salvage support ahead of the 2022 election. DeWine has become the favorite punching bag for Republican candidates as his support among Republican voters continues to flounder. Meanwhile, DeWine’s ties to ongoing corruption scandals at the statehouse and his weakness in standing up to extreme members of his own party make him an unpalatable candidate to voters across the political spectrum.

“If you’re looking for red flags surrounding DeWine’s Republican support, they aren’t difficult to find. A Republican lawmaker tried to impeach DeWine. The GOP-controlled Legislature forced checks on DeWine’s health orders and blocked his gun reforms.  Husted was booed at a Dayton-area Trump rally for suggesting attendees wear masks. U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel regularly takes shots at DeWine,” writes the Enquirer.

Expect to see a more dramatic shift from DeWine over the coming weeks and months, as Republicans continue to reject his agenda and speak out publicly against him, setting him up for a nasty primary fight. And his rightward shift will make him no friends with Democrats and Independents, leaving DeWine in a tenuous position as he looks ahead to the 2022 election.

Read the story from Cincinnati.com HERE and more below:

• The crowd gathered outside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s Cedarville estate wasn’t filled with Democrats protesting his signature on one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws or his support of “stand your ground” gun legislation. Instead, they were fellow Republicans flouting the governor’s COVID-19 restrictions.
• These Republicans represent more than an invasion of DeWine’s Friday night solitude. They point to an erosion of support for DeWine within the GOP base, a group of voters devoted to God, guns and former President Donald J. Trump.
• “I never in my life thought that he would pull the kind of antics and unethical and potentially illegal stunts that he has pulled, up to and including his latest Vax-a-Million program,” Phelps said. “Mike DeWine is a sellout. He doesn’t have conservative values. He is a hypocrite, and I see him as losing big time to Joe Blystone.” 
• If you’re looking for red flags surrounding DeWine’s Republican support, they aren’t difficult to find. A Republican lawmaker tried to impeach DeWine. The GOP-controlled Legislature forced checks on DeWine’s health orders and blocked his gun reforms.  Husted was booed at a Dayton-area Trump rally for suggesting attendees wear masks. U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel regularly takes shots at DeWine.

• Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale recently shared a poll that showed DeWine under water with Republican voters: 52% viewed DeWine somewhat or very unfavorably and 54% somewhat or strongly disapproved of his job performance, NBC News first reported. 
• DeWine’s foes are emboldened by Trump’s November 2020 tweet, hinting at a primary challenge for DeWine after the Republican governor urged Trump to begin the transition to President-elect Joe Biden.

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Columbus, OH — As Ohio House Democrats kick off their weeklong Freedom to Vote Town Hall Tour today, every day this week the Ohio Democratic Party will be digging in deeper to a harmful provision included in statehouse Republicans’ anti-voter legislation that takes Ohio backward in the fight for voting rights.

Today, ODP is focused on a provision in the bill that will cut a full day of early voting on the Monday before Election Day. In 2020, more than 50,000 Ohioans took advantage of Monday’s early voting, an 86 percent increase from 2008. Each election cycle, the Monday of early voting is used by more Ohioans, leading voters to question why Republicans are playing politics with Ohioans’ right to vote.

“There’s no excuse for Republicans ripping the rug out from under Ohio voters and taking away one of the most popular days to vote in our state. The latest attacks on early voting are right in line with the longtime Ohio GOP anti-voter playbook: chip away at Ohioans’ voting rights in the name of a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

As former Montgomery County Board of Elections official and current State Rep. Willis Blackshear, Jr. told the Dayton Daily News about cutting the Monday of early voting: “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” Blackshear continues: “I don’t see why we need to take that out all of a sudden. It’s worked very well for us these last years.”

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Columbus, OH — As Ohio House Democrats kick off their weeklong Freedom to Vote Town Hall Tour tomorrow, every day this week the Ohio Democratic Party will be digging in deeper to a harmful provision included in statehouse Republicans’ anti-voter legislation that takes Ohio backward in the fight for voting rights. The town hall tour will make stops this week in Cincinnati, Columbus, Akron, Cleveland and Toledo. Learn more HERE.

Today, ODP is focused on some of the most restrictive dropbox provisions in the country that are included in the GOP bill. The anti-voter bill would codify Frank LaRose’s nonsensical limit of one dropbox location per county, even after a federal judge ruled the restriction was ‘arbitrary and unreasonable.’ 

Ohio broke records for early voting in 2020 with dropboxes playing an important role in allowing Ohioans to exercise their right to vote safely and securely. Local elections officials have said that dropboxes are safe and secure and some county officials have utilized dropboxes even before the 2020 election, meaning the only explanation for these dropbox restrictions is so Republicans can play politics with Ohioans’ access to the ballot box.

“Dropboxes are a critical tool that allow Ohioans to have their voices heard and exercise their right to vote. While local elections officials have said that dropboxes are safe and secure, Frank LaRose and statehouse Republicans are driven by politics, not facts. They continue to rig the rules in their favor to put their own political interests first and leave Ohio voters behind,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Even the widely-panned Florida elections bill recently signed into law allows more than one dropbox location per county, making Ohio’s anti-voter bill one of the most restrictive in the country. Limiting dropboxes would hurt Ohio voters across the state, including rural Ohioans who will be forced to travel longer distances to cast their vote and urban voters who will face long lines and voter backups at their single dropbox location.

As the Columbus Dispatch recently editorialized, these provisions “potentially disenfranchise voters in sprawling rural counties with no public transportation, as well as voters in populous urban counties where some faced traffic jams and backups while trying to reach curbside drop boxes last year.”  

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