Ohio voter outreach groups go door-to-door to boost education as Election Day nears • Ohio Capital Journal

As early voting rolls around, those hoping to galvanize voters of all stripes are hard at work knocking on doors and getting Ohioans to the polls.

Ohio Voice works year-round on civic engagement, but with a presidential election, a turbulent U.S. Senate race and a ballot initiative to change the state’s redistricting process, this year included plenty of town halls and training to support “historically,” according to Ohio Voice co-director James Hayes.

Hayes’ group organizes events and works with the Ohio Voting Rights Coalition before and during Election Day to make sure voters have what they need. Many of the Ohio Voice groups work with a focus on voters of color and inform the groups about issues and candidates.

“There’s nothing you can do to replace person-to-person conversations,” Hayes said. “People need to have conversations with voters; it takes intention.”

The canvassing covered many topics, but redistricting reform in Issue 1 emerged as part of discussions with voters about the impact of policy on the things that matter to them.

Issue 1 would reform Ohio’s redistricting process by creating a redistricting commission made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and five independents who would be selected by a bipartisan judicial panel to draw the statehouse and congressional maps that determine voting districts throughout the state.

The ballot initiative would replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission, made up of politicians, which repeatedly produced unconstitutional maps in 2021 and 2022.

“Gerrymandering and redistricting aren’t necessarily the first issues voters think of, but you realize that things like housing and environmental issues and the economy, they’ve all been affected,” Hayes said.

Young Latino Network

Voter education is important in every election, but it can be especially important when it comes to issues that voters may not be well versed on.

“Gerrymandering doesn’t translate very well to Spanish,” said Selina Pagan, executive director of the Young Latino Network, an outreach organization that has been rooted in Northeast Ohio since 2002.

Pagan said the group plans to have bilingual information on Issue 1 for voters for educational purposes, but also because the summary language adopted by the Ohio Board of Elections is “very confusing,” especially in a language other than which was written, complete with “jargon” that may not translate.

“The way it reads in Spanish, it certainly influences someone without the context to vote no,” Pagan said.

In addition to educating voters on Issue 1, Pagan said YLN has worked to register early voters, make voters aware of vote-by-mail methods and knocked on more than 5,000 doors. With a particular focus on the city of Cleveland, network volunteers spoke with over 900 people.

“The (Latino) community has not had a political home and an organizing body to launch these types of voter engagement efforts,” Pagan told the Capital Journal. “We built this thing from the ground up and we’re going to make waves this year.”

The group collected more than 1,500 cards committing to a plan to vote in the 2024 general election and used phone banking and canvassing to provide polling station information and other nonpartisan information.

Now that the election is less than two weeks away, Pagan said the group has worked to inform voters specifically about the issues that matter most to the Latino community and how they have had races like the one for the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio and Ohio Supreme Court Races. local effects.

“We want to push our community to think more tactically,” Pagan said. “That means organizing spaces for us to talk about how these positions affect our everyday lives.”

Problems for children

Advocates for child care, hunger and education initiatives in the state engage with parents and others who are affected by legislative and congressional decisions related to these topics.

Everything from individual candidates in the districts where voters live to the overall redistricting reform proposed in Issue 1 could affect public and private education funding, how student debt is handled for school breakfasts and lunches, and changes in the state’s child care system.

“We know there’s a need for child care, we know there’s a need to pay child care workers more, we know there’s a need for more parents to be able to afford child care,” said Kelly Vyzral, senior health care associate . for the Ohio Children’s Defense Fund.

The changes made in Issue 1 could make a difference when it comes to allocating resources in the state, Vyzral said.

“Legislative representation and how those districts are drawn reflects the voices that are being heard,” Vyzral said. “You may not have a voice that speaks for fair school funding, and in different areas of the state, that’s a big issue.”

To help voters understand where Statehouse candidates stand on issues like child care and education, the nonprofit Ohio Kids First created a voter’s guidewhich includes responses to a questionnaire sent to each candidate for Ohio House and Senate seats.

“It is critical that we elect leaders who will put the needs of Ohio’s children at the forefront of our state legislature,” Ohio Kids First Executive Director Rachel Selby said in a statement announcing the voter guide. “From the child care crisis and quality early learning to health care access and early intervention, Ohio’s children and their families face significant challenges and needs, but they are too often overlooked.”

The Voter’s Guide includes responses from 45 Ohio House candidates and six Ohio Senate candidates, answering questions about their reasons for running, child care as a workforce issue, barriers to affordable child care options accessible, kindergarten readiness and infant and maternal mortality.

disability

While many groups are moving forward with their voter outreach plans in the weeks leading up to the general election, disabled voters have had a setback they say could affect their ability to vote.

“They’re citizens, they have the right to vote,” said Than Johnson, past president of the Ohio Provider Resource Association and former CEO of Champaign Residential Services, Inc., an Urbana-based provider for the developmentally disabled.

Advocates for disabled voters in the state cried foul when Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a directive saying that those submitting absentee ballots on behalf of another person would have to sign a form of “ attestation,” promising not to violate state law in delivering ballots. for another person.

The case is back a federal case filed in 2023 by the Ohio League of Women Voters and a disability rights advocate that said a new voter ID law in Ohio restricted who could return absentee ballots and therefore violated federal law.

For many Ohioans with disabilities, their caregivers are “basically pseudo-parents” and therefore the best people to help them count their vote, according to Johnson.

“A lot of (Ohians with disabilities) are very consistent, and they should have the right to have these caregivers take them to the polls,” Johnson said. “For me, the main support for these individuals is the caregivers.”

A court challenge argued that the extra step of filling out a form creates restrictions on voting, including regulating when ballots can be dropped off (within election hours), cutting off the ability of those who submit ballots on behalf of others to use drop. boxes for this purpose.

A federal judge in that case allowed Ohio residents with disabilities to enlist a person of their choice to return their absentee ballots, ruling that the Voting Rights Act gave those voters that right.

After that case was decided, LaRose issued the directive that included the requirement that shippers absentee ballots complete the attestation forms.

In full of drama the state supreme court case that challenged that directive, the Ohio Supreme Court chose not to drive on whether or not the LaRose directive violated state law, ruling instead that the court challenge was not filed in time for them to rule.

“What concerns me is that we’ve had what I would consider a restriction on the ability of those individuals to have the right to vote,” Johnson said. “But with (the Ohio Supreme Court decision) at the end of the process, it’s a decision we can’t help.”

Absentee ballots must be received by local election boards by close of business on October 29. Early voting in Ohio continues through Nov. 3.

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