Sun Setting on Voting "Golden Week"Photo by Sabrina Otis a graduate of the 2008 Photo competition.
The Secretary of State of Ohio published a draft of her recommendations for reforming Ohio voting laws. There were a series of lawsuits over voting procedure in 2006 and 2008 including an identification lawsuit by NEOCH. The Republican led legislature passed a massive change in the procedures in voting in early 2006 after a controversial presidential election in 2004. This new law has only amplified the problems and disputes with both conservative and liberal groups going to court in 2008.
Secretary of State Brunner had a series of public meetings, and invited participation from all corners of the state. Brunner herself is one of the most knowledgeable scholars on voting in the United States, so she was the perfect person to lead this effort. Everyone realizes that the current voting system in Ohio is flawed and needs reform. The Republican legislature in a lame duck session in late 2008 had proposed reform that would have limited participation in voting by lower income and minority populations. Fortunately, this effort died. An unfortunate thing happened on the way to reform: Brunner threw her hat into the ring for the Ohio U.S. Senate race.
I think most people wish that we could debate all these reforms (health care, voting, energy policy, and taxes) based on what is best for the country, instead of what is best for the politician's election. Most of these decisions are put forward based on the theory "will they hurt or improve my chances for re-election in the next office that I would like to conquer." So, we have these weak reform efforts that have a few short term gains, but they usually only push the problem down the road. Sometimes these reforms are structured so that the full impact (federal bankruptcy) do not occur until the candidates are safely re-elected such as the prescription drug benefit. Senatorial candidate Brunner who is expected to have a tough primary next year sent out her recommendation for voting reform.
There are a few improvements and certainly a large number of needed clarifications, but there are two serious flaws. Our concern, on behalf of homeless people, is that there is a new requirement for identification. Those voting will have to show two forms of identification, and one must be issued by a government. The law is clarified that ID is only to prove who the person is, and not to prove an address. The other negative change for homeless people is the elimination of golden week. The sun is setting on this great quark in the law that allowed homeless people to vote and register or change their address at the same location at the same time. Over 500 very low income people used this week to vote in the 2008 Presidential election in Cleveland. This overlap of the early voting and the deadline for registration helped us to assist over 1,200 homeless people to vote during the last election. There is a report on our website detailing the work of the Coalition on voting during 2008.
In late June, we received a reply to our concerns from the Office of the Secretary of State. Bryan Clark, Policy Coordinator, for Secretary Brunner responded to our letter asking for a second look at these policies. Clark points out that the state legislature supports identification for voting so there is no chance of getting rid of this. Clark claims that a shelter letter and the notification from the Board of Election would satisfy the ID requirement. This is not clear in the draft document on the website, but if this makes it through the legislative process we support this concept. Both these forms of identification would be free and thus would allow homeless people to vote without having to wait for the money to buy a birth certificate from their home state.
Clark on behalf of the Secretary said that the participants at the public meetings supported an end to "Golden Week." With the Republican legislature hating "golden week," and now the Democratic Secretary of State on record supporting a change that would eliminate golden week it looks like the overlap is dead in the water. The problem is that there is a state election in 2010 with Brunner running for Senate and many state offices including Secretary of State up for election. Just because of the campaign and contentious nature of voting reform, I predict that nothing will be done on voting. I cannot see a way that a compromise will be struck between the two sides. There is a canyon between the Rs and the Ds on this issue. Good government and efficient voting procedures will have to wait until 2011.
Brian
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