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With Abortion Rights on the Line, Ohio Lawmaker Says Those Purged Unlawfully Must Be Allowed to Vote
"Ohioans deserve assurances of what will happen to ballots cast by any voters you purged who show up to vote in the November 7th election," said state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney.
Nov 03, 2023
With days to go until Ohio voters decide on a pivotal abortion rights referendum in the November 7 election, one state representative is leading the charge to ensure all eligible Ohioans are able to have their ballots counted despite Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose's recent purge of 27,000 supposedly "inactive" voters."
Ohio state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-16) wrote to LaRose on Friday, warning that her office's preliminary analysis had shown "significant errors" were made, with some of the people removed from rolls having voted in recent elections.
Sweeney said her office believes "the purge was not uniform and nondiscriminatory as required by federal law" and called for its reversal.
"Ohioans deserve assurances of what will happen to ballots cast by any voters you purged who show up to vote in the November 7th election," she wrote.
Sweeney took note of the voter purge late last month and promptly demanded answers from LaRose, who, she pointed out, ordered thousands of voters to be removed from the rolls after voting in the general election had already started in September. The voting period began on September 22, when ballots were first sent out to overseas voters, and the purge was ordered for September 28.
Calling the order "stunning" and a "purge of choice" that should have taken place after the election, Sweeney called on LaRose to undo the damage. But after the secretary of state defended the purge, claiming it targeted only voters who had "moved or died" or had been unresponsive to attempts to contact them and accusing Democrats of "trying to help dead people vote," Sweeney doubled down on her demand for answers.
"Something's not adding up," she replied to LaRose on social media, noting that the purged voters were disproportionately under the age of 45, while that age group makes up less than 7% of deaths in Ohio each year.
Sweeney's finding that some of the purged residents are in fact active voters in Ohio "is reason enough to reverse the purge, take a more thorough look at the list, and only remove those who have truly become ineligible to vote in Ohio—and to do so only after the November 7 election," wrote the lawmaker.
She also called on LaRose to clarify whether voters who were wrongly purged will be able to have their votes counted in the election.
On Tuesday, the secretary of state's office said: "If the voter heads to the polls to vote, it reactivates their registration. They are not shut out of the process."
Noting that ballot reports from the August special election indicated that provisional ballots were not counted, Sweeney wrote, "Are you stating that these purged voters' provisional ballots will be counted?"
Next Tuesday, voters will be asked whether the Ohio Constitution should be amended to enshrine the right of Ohioans to make choices about their reproductive health, including whether to have an abortion. A six-week abortion ban is currently on hold in the state while the Ohio Supreme Court deliberates the law.
"No Ohioan should be denied their freedom to vote because of an error or—even worse—because of a hyperpartisan secretary of state," said Sweeney in a statement.
In her letter to LaRose, she noted that "there seems to be a misunderstanding of voting basics" in the secretary's office, which has made "several concerning misstatements about how voter registration and voter roll maintenance work" in recent days.
LaRose's office has claimed that voters who move are no longer legally permitted on voter rolls, which is "simply incorrect," Sweeney said, and that when voters move and register at a new address, their old registration is not canceled.
"In fact, county election officials do remove the former registration when adding a voter to their rolls as a matter of course," said Sweeney. "There simply are not large numbers of duplicate registrations on our rolls. It is a rare case where the former registration stays on the rolls. We look forward to seeing your data showing why each voter was purged."
On social media, Sweeney noted that she called for a third-party audit after the secretary of state's last "massive voter purge," and said expanding voting rights in Ohio and the U.S. would end such purges.
"Automatic voter registration would make our rolls more accurate," said Sweeney, "and basically render the purges moot."
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Abortion Rights Groups in Ohio Make Final Push for Issue 1 as GOP Peddles Misinformation
Republicans "know they can't win a fair fight, so they're trying to rig the game," said former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
Nov 02, 2023
Reproductive rights advocates in Ohio and across the U.S. are intensifying efforts to ensure voters in the Midwestern state approve a ballot measure on November 7 that would enshrine the right to abortion care in the Ohio Constitution—making a final push with canvassing and phone banking campaigns as they combat misinformation from pro-forced pregnancy Republicans.
Issue 1 will ask voters whether the state constitution should be amended to affirm that Ohioans have the right to "carry out one's own reproductive decisions," including abortion.
Abortion care is currently legal in Ohio up to 22 weeks of pregnancy as the right-wing state Supreme Court deliberates over a six-week abortion ban that was passed by Republicans and then put on hold.
Advocates have warned that failing to amend the constitution will leave Ohioans without "the freedom to decide what it best for [their] own families," with Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights (OURR) featuring in one ad a woman who needed an abortion after getting pregnant in an abusive relationship.
The Ohio secretary of state's office reported earlier this week that more than 200,000 voters had cast their ballots early in person and about 110,000 people had sent in absentee ballots by October 24, representing an even higher early voter turnout than the state saw ahead of an August special election.
That election, which progressive news outlet Heartland Signal said was likely "supercharging pro-choice voters" as Ohioans flocked to the polls to vote early, asked voters whether the state should require a 60% threshold on referendums regarding amendments to the state constitution, rather than a simple majority. The initiative, backed by Republicans who oppose abortion rights, failed by a vote of 43% to 57%.
Led by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, forced pregnancy advocates have managed to change the language of the question appearing on ballots in the November 7 general election, using the word "unborn child" instead of the originally proposed "fetus" and saying the amendment would, as the ACLU of Ohio explained in September, "'always allow' abortion care 'at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability,' if the treating physician finds it necessary to protect health."
"Not only is this phrasing confusing and inflammatory, but it also suggests that the physician could override the pregnant patient's wishes," said Sheila Smith, communications strategist at the ACLU of Ohio. "This is absolutely false."
The amendment would allow the state to ban abortion care after about 23 weeks of pregnancy unless it "is necessary to protect the pregnant patient's life or health," but that language does not appear in the certified language on Ohioans' ballots.
State Attorney General Dave Yost has also falsely claimed the proposed amendment would invalidate parental consent laws for minors seeking abortion care.
Republican leaders in the state "know they can't win a fair fight, so they're trying to rig the game," said former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
A poll by the Institute for Civics and Public Policy at Ohio Northern University last week found that 52% of Ohio voters still support Issue 1 based on the certified language that will appear on ballots, while 68% supported the proposed amendment as advocates initially phrased it.
In addition to working to ensure voters know that Issue 1 will be appearing on ballots, groups including Innovation Ohio are working to educate Ohioans on the facts about the referendum and Republicans' false claims.
State Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-23) toldThe Hill on Wednesday that the ballot initiative may represent "a real turning point in terms of whether or not young people especially even see Ohio as a state they want to live in," as states like California and New York work to make abortion more accessible.
"And I do believe that the outcome of this election and of this ballot measure is gonna send a message to young people on whether or not there's a future for them here in Ohio," said Antonio.
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Ohio Voters Reject GOP 'Power Grab' Aimed at Thwarting Abortion Rights Amendment
"Issue 1 was a blatant attempt by its supporters to control both the policy agenda and the process of direct democracy," said one campaigner.
Aug 09, 2023
Ohio voters on Tuesday decisively rejected a Republican-authored measure that would have made it more difficult to amend the state constitution through the ballot initiative process, a billionaire-funded effort aimed at preempting a November vote on abortion rights.
If approved by voters, the measure known as Issue 1 would have raised the threshold for passage of a constitutional amendment from a simple majority to 60%. The measure also would have imposed more stringent signature requirements for Ohio ballot initiatives.
The GOP proposal—which was the only item on the ballot in Tuesday's special election—failed by a vote of 43% to 57%, according to the Ohio secretary of state's office.
"Issue 1 was a blatant attempt by its supporters to control both the policy agenda and the process of direct democracy," said Rachael Belz, the CEO of Ohio Citizen Action, one of the groups that mobilized in opposition to the proposal. "When they forced Issue 1 onto the ballot, they awakened a sleeping giant and unleashed a movement. And that movement isn't going away tomorrow. It will continue to build and grow and to carry us through to victories in November and beyond."
The Republican push for Issue 1 drew national attention given the implications for both the democratic process and reproductive rights in Ohio, where abortion is currently legal through 22 weeks of pregnancy—though the state GOP is working to change that.
A proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in November would codify the right to abortion access in the Ohio constitution, stating that "every individual has a right to make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one's own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion."
Frank LaRose, Ohio's Republican secretary of state and a U.S. Senate hopeful, said in June that Issue 1 was " 100% about" preventing passage of the abortion rights amendment.
Recent polling indicates that around 58% of Ohioans back the proposed amendment—a level of support that would have been insufficient had Issue 1 succeeded.
"From defeating Issue 1 tonight to submitting nearly twice the amount of signatures needed to get a measure protecting abortion access on the ballot in November, Ohio voters have made clear that they will settle for nothing less than reproductive freedom for all," Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement late Tuesday.
"Republicans should be ashamed of their efforts to subvert the will of voters," Timmaraju added. "Seeing this measure defeated is a victory for our fundamental rights and our democracy. We're grateful to our partners on the ground for their tireless efforts to secure abortion rights and access. We look forward to fighting by their side to lock this fundamental freedom into law in November."
"It was the hard work and resilience of Ohioans of all parties that prevented the destruction of a foundational right we've held for 110+ years."
The Republican attack on the ballot initiative process in Ohio is part of a nationwide GOP effort to limit direct democracy as the party—emboldened by the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court—continues its effort to roll back abortion rights and other freedoms.
According to a March tally by election analyst Stephen Wolf, Republicans have recently tried to make it harder to pass citizen-led ballot initiatives in at least 10 states, including Ohio, Florida, Arizona, and Arkansas.
"In the many states where the GOP has refused to take action, activists have used ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid, raise the minimum wage, secure abortion rights, protect the right to vote, curb gerrymandering, legalize marijuana, promote gun safety, and more," Wolf wrote. "How have Republicans reacted to this? By trying to make it harder to pass initiatives in the first place."
Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, said Tuesday that "since 1912, Ohioans have had the right to collect signatures and bring proposed constitutional amendments directly to voters."
"This is an important check on the state legislature, hyperpartisan politicians, and special interests who did everything they could to take away that right," Turcer added. "It was the hard work and resilience of Ohioans of all parties that prevented the destruction of a foundational right we've held for 110+ years."
"Tonight's results," Turcer said, "are a resounding victory for Ohio voters who helped stop this power grab by the state legislature and Secretary of State Frank LaRose."
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