Ohio voter outreach groups go door to door to boost education as Election Day approaches

As early voting rolls on, those hoping to galvanize voters of all kinds are working hard to knock on doors and get Ohioans to the polls.

Ohio Voice works year-round on civic engagement, but with a presidential election, a turbulent U.S. Senate race and a ballot initiative to change the redistricting process in the state, this year has included a lot of town halls and trainings to support the “historic” election year, according to James Hayes, Ohio Voice’s co-director.

Hayes’ group organizes events and works with the Ohio Voting Rights Coalition before and during Election Day to make sure voters have what they need. Many of the groups Ohio Voice works with focus on Black voters and informing groups on issues and candidates.

“There’s nothing you can do to replace person-to person conversations,” Hayes said. “It takes people having conversations with voters; it takes intention.”

The canvassing has covered many topics, but Issue 1’s redistricting reform has come up as part of talks with voters about the impact of politics on the things that matter to them.

Issue 1 would reform Ohio’s redistricting process by creating a citizens redistricting commission made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and five independents who would be selected by a bipartisan judicial panel to draw the statehouse and congressional maps that determine voting districts all over the state.

The ballot initiative would replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission made up of politicians, which repeatedly produced unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps in 2021 and 2022.

“Gerrymandering and redistricting aren’t necessarily the first issues that voters are thinking about, but you realize things like housing and environmental issues and the economy, it’s all been impacted,” Hayes said.

Young Latino Network

Voter education is important in every election, but it can be especially important when it comes to issues for which voters may not be well-versed.

“Gerrymandering does not translate very well in Spanish,” said Selina Pagan, executive director for the Young Latino Network, an outreach organization that has had roots in Northeast Ohio since 2002.

Pagan said the group planned to have bilingual information about Issue 1 for voters for educational purposes, but also because the summary language passed by the Ohio Ballot Board is “very confusing,” even more so in a language other than the one in which it was written, complete with “jargon” that might not translate.

“The way it reads in Spanish, it definitely influences someone without context to vote no,” Pagan said.

Alongside educating voters about Issue 1, Pagan said the YLN worked to get voters registered on time, make voters aware of vote-by-mail methods, and knocked on more than 5,000 doors. With a particular focus on the city of Cleveland, volunteers with the network have talked to more than 900 individuals.

“The (Latino) community has not had a political home and an organizing body to launch these types of voter engagements efforts before,” Pagan told the Capital Journal. “We have been building this thing from scratch and we’re going to make waves this year.”

The group has collected more than 1,500 cards that pledge a plan to vote in the 2024 general election, and have used phone-banking and canvassing to provide info on polling places and other nonpartisan information.

Now that the election is less than two weeks away, Pagan said the group has been working to inform voters particularly on issues that matter most to the Latino community, and how races like the one for Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat and the Ohio Supreme Court races have local effects.

“We want to push our community to think more tactically,” Pagan said. “That means curating spaces for us to talk about how these positions affect our daily lives.”

Children’s Issues

Advocates for child care, hunger initiatives, and education in the state are engaging with parents and others who are impacted by the legislative and congressional decisions related to those topics.

Everything from the individual candidates in the districts where voters live to the overall redistricting reform proposed in Issue 1 could affect funding for public and private education, how student debt for school breakfast and lunch is handled and changes to the state’s child care system.

“We know that there’s a need for child care, we know that there’s a need to pay child care workers more, we know that there’s a need for more parents to be able to afford child care,” said Kelly Vyzral, senior health policy associate for the Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio.

The changes made in Issue 1 could make the difference when it comes to resource allocation in the state, Vyzral said.

“Legislative representation and how those districts are drawn reflects the voices that are heard,” Vyzral said. “You might not have a voice that speaks out for fair school funding, and in different areas of the state, that’s a big issue.”

To help voters understand where Statehouse candidates stand on issues like child care and education, the not-for-profit organization Ohio Kids First created a voter guide, which includes answers to a questionnaire sent to every candidate for Ohio’s House and Senate seats.

“It is critical to elect leaders who will put the needs of Ohio children front and center in our state’s legislature,” Ohio Kids First executive director Rachel Selby said in a statement announcing the voter guide. “From the child care crisis and quality early learning to health care access and early intervention, Ohio’s children and their families face significant challenges and needs, but are all-too-often overlooked.”

The voter guide includes responses from 45 candidates for Ohio House seats and six Ohio Senate candidates, answering questions about their reasons for running, child care as a workforce issue, barriers to affordable child care options, kindergarten readiness and infant and maternal mortality.

Disabilities

While many groups are moving forward with their voter outreach plans in the weeks before the general election, voters with disabilities had a setback that they say may impact their ability to vote.

“They’re citizens, they have a right to vote,” said Than Johnson, former president of the Ohio Provider Resources Association and former CEO of Champaign Residential Services, Inc., an Urbana-based provider for those with developmental disabilities.

Advocates for disabled voters in the state cried foul when Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a directive that said those delivering absentee ballots on behalf of another person would have to sign an “attestation” form, pledging they were not violating state law in delivering ballots for another person.

The case hearkened back to a federal case filed in 2023 by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and a disability rights advocate who said a newly changed voter ID law in Ohio restricted who could return absentee ballots, and therefore violated federal law.

For many Ohioans with disabilities, their caregivers are “basically pseudo-parents,” and therefore are the best people to help get their vote counted, according to Johnson.

“Many (disabled Ohioans) are very coherent and should have a right for those caregivers to take them to vote,” Johnson said. “To me, the principal support for those individuals are the caregivers.”

A court challenge claimed the extra step of filling out a form creates restrictions to voting, including regulating when the ballots can be dropped off (within boards of election hours), cutting off the ability for those dropping off ballots on behalf of others to use drop boxes for that purpose.

A federal judge in that case allowed disabled Ohio residents to enlist a person of their choosing to return their absentee ballots, ruling that the Voting Rights Act granted those voters that right.

After that case was decided, LaRose issued the directive that included the requirement that those delivering absentee ballots fill out the attestation forms.

In the drama-filled state supreme court case that challenged that directive, the Ohio Supreme Court chose not to rule on whether or not the directive from LaRose violated state law, ruling instead that the court challenge was not filed in time for them to decide.

“What is concerning to me is that we did have what I would consider a restriction on the ability for those individuals to have the right to vote,” Johnson said. “But with (the Ohio Supreme Court decision) at the very end of the process, it’s a decision that we can’t help.”

Absentee ballots had to be received by local boards of elections by the close of business on Oct. 29. Early voting in Ohio continues until Nov. 3.

Susan Tebben is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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