Ohio's chief elections official, a Republican, is calling for the repeal of a controversial election "reform" bill passed last year by the GOP-controlled General Assembly. If lawmakers are smart, they'll listen to him.
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Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted says the battle over the law, which is on hold until voters decide its fate by referendum in the November general election, could cause confusion among voters and poll workers in the meantime. That would be bad in a presidential election year.
The changes that lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich enacted last year would reduce the number of early voting days, eliminate in-person early voting on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, and stop early voting three days before Election Day. The new law also prohibits county boards of election from mass-mailing absentee ballot request forms to voters, and eliminates the requirement that poll workers direct voters who are in the wrong precinct to the right one.
Democrat opponents of the law quickly collected enough signatures to put it on the November ballot. To clear up potential confusion, Mr. Husted wants lawmakers to repeal the reform bill to make the referendum unnecessary. They could start over after the November election, he says.
Republicans say the new law is needed to prevent voter fraud, but they offer isolated anecdotal examples, at best, as evidence. Democrats say the measure aims to suppress votes of elderly, poor, and minority Ohioans, most of whom tend to vote Democratic.
This is not the first time Secretary Husted has parted company with members of his party on voting-rights issues. He argued that a bill passed by the GOP-led Ohio House last year, which would have required voters to provide photo identification at the polls, was unnecessary and could delay ballot counting. The bill properly died in the state Senate.
But the desire to repeal the voter law isn't solely rooted in altruism and concern for voting rights. The referendum could spur more Democrats to vote this year, as they did last November to strike down Senate Bill 5, the Republican-led attempt to curtail collective bargaining by public unions.
Republican leaders in the General Assembly bristled at Mr. Husted's advice, but it would enhance their election prospects in November. Canceling the referendum would remove a Democratic hot-button issue from a battleground-state ballot in a presidential election year.
It is tempting to invite Republicans to explain to voters how making it harder for them to vote strikes a blow for democracy. But repeal also is the better course for voters, who are tired of being asked to do lawmakers' jobs for them.
Instead of passing bad laws to address nonexistent problems, state lawmakers should look for ways to make it easier for Ohioans to vote while protecting the high level of integrity in elections.
Neither party should use a majority status primarily to skew the system more in its favor. If Republican lawmakers don't recognize that and repeal the so-called reforms, voters likely will drive home the message in November.
First Published February 4, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
