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Monday, February 28, 2011
Secretary of State Husted calls for online voter registration, address changes
Secretary of State Jon Husted, the former Dayton-area legislator, on Monday said he will ask the legislature to allow Ohioans to register to vote and change their addresses online.
The process would require a valid Ohio’s driver’s license or state identification card, Husted said at a Statehouse news conference.
It is one of the changes he said he wants the legislature to make by this May to get ready for the November 2012 presidential elections.
The changes strive for a “balance between access and accuracy in the process,” Husted said.
Steve Quillen, Miami County board of elections director, called it a good idea. “It might spur people to actually change their addresses,” Quillen said.
Ten other states already offer or plan to offer on-line registration, Husted said.
Jason Mauk, spokesman for Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, said Husted and Niehaus have spoken about the changes but no firm plans for moving the legislation have been made.
Other changes proposed by Husted include:
*Setting the window for absentee voting by mail at 21 days and 16-days for in-person voting prior to Election Day. The window now is 35 days. The voting period for military voters would stay at 45 days.
*Requiring all county boards of elections to be open from 8 a.m. - noon on the two Saturdays within the in-person early voting period and to be closed on Sundays.
*Closing all in-person absentee voting the Friday before Election Day.
*Setting statewide absentee voting standards, including prohibiting boards of elections from mailing unsolicited absentee ballot requests or pre-paying postage for returned absentee ballot applications or voted ballots.
*Requiring those who are registering to vote or voting an absentee or provisional ballot who choose to use their Social Security number for identification purposes to provide all nine digits, instead of just the last four.
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TweetEx-Strickland aide heads new progressive think tank
Janetta King, a top aide to former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, is the president of Innovation Ohio, a new non-partisan progressive think tank that opened for business on Monday in Columbus.
The group also released a report that said from 2008-2009 - at the height of the economic downturn - Ohio teachers saw their pay drop an average of 3.8 percent, compared to a 2 percent average increase nationally.
The report was aimed at countering supporters of Senate Bill 5, which would restricting collective bargaining rights for teachers and other public employees.
The group wants to promote public policies that “will move Ohio ahead without leaving some of its people behind,” King, deputy chief of staff for policy for Strickland, said at a press conference.
She declined to identify funding sources for the group or any Republicans who might be joining the group.
Dale Butland, a long-time consultant to Democrats and labor groups and a former aide to U.S. Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, is the group’s communications director.
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TweetCollective bargaining protests to resume Tuesday; Senate president raps Dems
With a vote in the Ohio Senate considered likely this week, opponents of Senate Bill 5 plan to resume protesting Tuesday against the restrictions on public employee collective bargaining, this time with a musical backdrop.
ProgressOhio, a liberal advocacy group, announced that “The Street Dogs”, a Boston band fronted by the founding singer of the “Dropkick Murphys”, will perform outside the Statehouse at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
The band has recently performed at protests outside the Wisconsin Statehouse, where a similar battle over public employee collective bargaining is raging.
Also, ProgressOhio has launched a website, sb5ohio.com, to keep up with events surrounding the issue.
Meanwhile, Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, used a news release to rip into Senate Democrats for declining to negotiate to make possible changes in the bill.
“As I sat down today to review the amendments submitted by Friday’s deadline, I expected to see their constructive ideas on how to address the concerns they’ve expressed, but they refused to submit a single change,” Niehaus said.
“Much like their counterparts in Wisconsin, they apparently would rather grandstand in defense of the status quo.”
The Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on the bill at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
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