Let Me Vote

05.11.17

What is the real voter fraud, Mr. President?

By Mike Brickner

Following the November 2016 election, President Trump and his administration made claims that simply should not go unanswered, both because they are patently false and they pose a grave threat to our most cherished right to vote. The administration has repeatedly claimed that 3-5 million people illegally voted in that election, and have now launched a national investigation to look into it.

09.27.16

Voter purges: It’s not about the dead people

By Mike Brickner

Last week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a serious blow to Ohio’s illegal and unfair practice of removing voters from the rolls simply because they have not voted for a few federal elections. The ACLU of Ohio and Demos challenged this process in court, and the Sixth Circuit Court decided that it violated federal law and must stop immediately.

09.21.16

ACLU Announces New Webpage for Deaf Voters

By Katrice Williams

Imagine showing up to your local polling place and you are not sure of the rules around how to cast your ballot. You ask for assistance from poll workers, but none of them can speak your language or communicate easily with you.

08.12.16

Voting Local Has A Big Impact On Issues You Care About

By Katrice Williams

The last days of July marked the end to both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have risen as their parties’ presidential nominees for November’s general election.

But limiting November’s general election to just the presidential race is short-sighted, especially given the open seats in the U.S.

08.02.16

Voter Suppression Undermines Democracy

By Katrice Williams

Voting is a sacred American value. It gives each citizen their say in a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” While we may not agree on values or even the means to achieve shared objectives, we can agree that every eligible voter deserves unimpeded access to the ballot.

09.23.15

What Does It Mean to Vote Free of Barriers?

By Adrienne Gavula

All polling locations must be physically accessible for people with disabilities, and each polling location must have one accessible voting machine. But does accessibility only mean technology and brick and mortar?

Time to Change Attitudes

When we think about barriers for voters with disabilities, we often think of physical barriers, but there are people barriers, too.

08.12.15

Karla M. Lortz: Advocating for Online Voter Registration in Ohio

By Lisa Wurm

Karla M. Lortz has a voice so pleasant you’d swear you smell warm apple pies on her window sill as she speaks. However, that voice also belongs to a retired director of the Governor’s Council on People with Disabilities and a leading advocate behind legislation, including the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

06.10.15

How One Pastor Moves Voter Registration Mountains

By Lisa Wurm

Darryl Fairchild, pastor of Bellbrook United Methodist Church, stands tall among advocates for online voter registration in Ohio, despite using a wheelchair since a 1992 bicycle accident.

Advocate for Voter Rights

Fairchild served as the community organizer for Vote Dayton, which later became Lift Greater Dayton, a non-partisan organization of churches, synagogues, mosques, schools, community centers, and unions working for justice and a better city.

02.11.15

Could Online Voting Be in Your Future?

By Shakyra Diaz

You know the stories: thousands of people disenfranchised at the polls because of identification issues; workers unable to vote because of limited voting hours; and those long, long lines of voters at the polls during national elections.

Judging from accounts like these, it is hard to doubt that certain voting laws make access to the polls increasingly difficult for greater numbers of people.

11.04.14

Shake Off Those Election Day Blues: The Top Five Reasons to Vote

By Kim Schuette

So, what’s the use if I don’t know the good it’s gonna do
And I’m standing on the doorstep of a country with the election day blues

Patrick Dunn, From “Election Day Blues”

Elections Day is tomorrow, November 4.

Are you underwhelmed by the midterm elections—I mean, more so than usual?

10.23.14

Look What Else Ohio Politicians Are Doing to Block Your Vote

By Tim Cable

When Ohio’s legislature and secretary of state slashed early voting opportunities this year, the ACLU of Ohio fought it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

While that fight has received national media attention, there’s another ongoing battle for voting rights in Ohio that you might not have heard about.

10.16.14

Sounds of the Season: LWVO Takes Time to Listen

By Steve David

During autumn in Ohio, yards change to the color of campaign signs.  And shifting as rapidly as the weather, the courts are handing down rulings about when you can cast your ballot.

Just before early voting was set to begin, the U.S.

09.30.14

Voting Rights for Ohioans with Disabilities

By Adrienne Gavula

Imagine visiting your polling place on Election Day and discovering there is no parking, the sidewalk is blocked, and the door is locked. Yet, despite all this, you manage to get into the building only to find out the poll workers do not speak your language and the voting machine is out of reach.

09.26.14

Fight for Voting Rights in Ohio Goes to the U.S. Supreme Court

By Tim Cable

After a federal district court judge ruled in the ACLU of Ohio’s case NAACP v. Husted that cuts to early voting opportunities in Ohio must be restored in time for the November 2014 election, Secretary of State Jon Husted could have taken the opportunity to accept the court’s order and begin educating voters about early voting.

09.25.14

Books and Ballots: Voting Rights For Students

By Steve David

As the summer draws to a close, thousands of students have packed their bags to return to college campuses across the state. Among questions about professors to take, how late you can wait to drop a class, and if you can really afford that textbook, is one they may not have not considered: How are you going to cast your ballot in November?

09.16.14

Voting early? Choose your date and time!

By Mike Brickner

Update 09.29.14: Due to an order by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio’s early voting period has changed from the schedule originally listed below. Read our press release: ACLU Comment on Supreme Court Action on Ohio Early Voting. Go to our Vote Center for up to date information.

09.11.14

Why is Secretary Husted Defying a Court Order?

By Steve David

Update 09.29.14: Due to an order by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio’s early voting period has changed. Read our press release: ACLU Comment on Supreme Court Action on Ohio Early Voting. Go to our Vote Center for up to date information.

09.09.14

Victory for Ohio Voters!

By Mike Brickner

Early this year, Ohio’s legislature and Secretary of State slashed early voting opportunities that had been relied upon by thousands of voters in Ohio. A week-long same-day registration period, all evening early voting hours, and all but one Sunday of early voting were cut from Ohio’s early voting period.

09.08.14

Federal Judge Sees Through Ohio’s Bogus Arguments For Cutting Early Voting

By Steve David

This article is featured on the national ACLU Blog of Rights.

While it may be technically possible for there to be a sufficiently good reason to cut early voting – one that isn’t just a sorry excuse for voter suppression – we haven’t seen it yet.

09.03.14

Check Your Mail Ohio

By Steve David

Last Friday, Secretary of State Jon Husted mailed absentee ballot applications to all registered Ohio voters. This puts ballots in reach for millions of Ohioans who choose to vote by mail each election.

Access to vote by mail was not easily won.

08.15.14

ACLU in the Courts: Fighting for Your Voting Rights

By Mike Brickner

Five ACLU staff attorneys.

Multiple volunteer attorneys, clerks, and legal assistants.

Hundreds of hours of staff time fighting unfair restrictions on Ohioans’ right to vote.

On Monday, August 11, the ACLU of Ohio and ACLU National Voting Rights Project went to court in Columbus to challenge cuts to early voting that will hurt working Ohioans.

08.07.14

The Challenge of Voting

By Steve David

Voting can be hard.  The merits of candidates, sides of issues, and conflicting messages force us to make difficult decisions at the voting booth.  We often have hard conversations with family, friends, and colleagues that examine our beliefs and challenge our thinking. 

07.09.14

How Cuts to Early Voting Hurt Everyone

By Mike Brickner

It never fails to amaze me how some politicians continue to claim that cuts to early voting opportunities don’t hurt voters, and that people have plenty of time to cast their ballots without evenings and weekends. At best, these claims are willfully ignorant of the fact that many people have inflexible work schedules, childcare duties, lack of transportation, or a disability that makes it difficult for them to get to their polling place on Election Day.

06.25.14

1 step forward, 2 back on early voting

By Mike Brickner

This ACLU of Ohio Op/Ed originally appeared in The Cincinnati Enquirer on 6/25/2014

Mike Brickner is senior policy director for ACLU American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

“This is not what democracy should look like.”

It was my first thought as I watched the television on Nov.

06.24.14

Statehouse 2014: Religious Bigotry, Discrimination, Suppression—Oh My!

By Lisa Wurm

It is understandably difficult to keep track of everything that goes on at the Statehouse.  We have a hard time ourselves. The current two-year legislative session is 75% over and, with important elections looming, we expect the Statehouse will be quieter during the fall until the lame duck session.

12.12.13

Ohio Legislature Bent on Making Voting Harder

By Nick Worner

Below is an excerpt from an Op/Ed that appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on 12/07/2013.

It’s no big secret that manipulating voting laws is a partisan blood sport in Ohio. The controversies of 2004 are the stuff of legend, and in 2012 we saw a voting bill so obviously partisan that the voters themselves organized a ballot referendum to strike it down.