Name: Ohio lawmakers advance elections bill while removing language that rolled back early voting
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Ohio lawmakers advance elections bill while removing language that rolled back early voting

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NEW!667sharesCOLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio lawmakers dramatically overhauled an elections bill on Wednesday, stripping controversial language that would have rolled back early voting for the November election.The House State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday voted 8-4 to advance an amended version of , referring it to the full House for approval. Republicans on the committee voted ‘yes,’ Democrats voted ‘no.'Committee members removed language that to every registered voter in Ohio for the upcoming election, something that’s been done for every presidential and gubernatorial election since 2012. Instead, they authorized him to use federal funding to pay for the mailing, which will cost $1.3 million.Lawmakers also removed language that elections officials and voting-rights advocates believed would have eliminated early, in-person voting for the final three days before Election Day.State Rep. Stephen Hambley, a Brunswick Republican, contended the original bill would have actually left the three days intact, and only would have cleaned up outdated statutory language. Regardless, he said the proposed change had caused “consternation,” and so they removed it.Finally, the bill removed language that would have allowed Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration to request an emergency election, with legislative approval, no later than 60 days before Election Day. The former language laid out a specific emergency plan, requiring an entirely vote-by-mail election, according to its official description.But lawmakers replaced this part with language that would prohibit the public officials — with exceptions for state lawmakers and local boards of election — from changing the time, manner or place of an election, adopting language in a different bill. It’s directed at preventing a repeat of the March primary, DeWine’s administration canceled in-person voting hours before polls were to have openedState lawmakers ended up extending the election, allowing Ohioans to vote by mail through April 28. The sequence led to voter confusion and mail-delay issues.HB680, sponsored by Cincinnati state Rep. Cindy Abrams, was designed with the previous primary election in mind, and tried to come up with a specific plan to respond to an emergency while providing legislative oversight, according to bill supporters.But the new plan drew criticism from Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Democrats, voting-rights activists and other groups.Hambley said the changes took that criticism into account.“This group of amendments helps address many of those issues. We’ve been listening,” he said. “I think there have been some reasonable compromises made on this… I think a lot of these changes reflect those concerns and answers those concerns appropriately.”LaRose testified Wednesday that the changes addressed his biggest concerns.“What’s happened here is we’ve listened to our elections officials,” he said.The bill also tweaks the deadline for Ohioans to request a mail-in ballot. If it becomes law, voters would have to apply for one seven days before the election, rather than the current three days. The change gives the U.S. Postal Service more time to process requests and for elections officials to return a blank ballot, bill supporters said.Republican committee members rejected amendments proposed by Democrats, including those that would have made other changes requested by LaRose. These included providing postage-paid envelopes with ballots and applications to voters, or allowing voters to apply for a ballot online instead of requiring a paper form.They also rejected Democratic amendments that would full requests from voting-rights activists, included allowing county elections boards to set up multiple drop-boxes for completed ballots, or sending blank absentee ballots directly to all Ohio voters, skipping the step of requiring them to apply for one.Elections officials and voting-rights activists have said pro-active changes are needed to encourage early voting, due to lingering public-health concerns surrounding the coronavirus.Read recent coverage by cleveland.com:Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!667sharesCOLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio lawmakers dramatically overhauled an elections bill on Wednesday, stripping controversial language that would have rolled back early voting for the November election.The House State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday voted 8-4 to advance an amended version of , referring it to the full House for approval. Republicans on the committee voted ‘yes,’ Democrats voted ‘no.'Committee members removed language that to every registered voter in Ohio for the upcoming election, something that’s been done for every presidential and gubernatorial election since...

Ohio lawmakers advance elections bill while removing language that rolled back early voting

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