Ohio prepares for two primary elections in 2012

The Highland County Press

Ohio is set to hold two primary elections in 2012, one on March 6 and the second one on June 12.

The two elections were made necessary after protests over the Republican's new map of 16 congressional districts.

Secretary of State Jon Husted on Friday certified that “Ohioans for Fair Districts,” the group seeking a referendum on House Bill 319, has met the initial 1,000-signature requirement needed to begin circulating petitions for the November 2012 ballot.

Ohio law requires petitioners seeking to place a referendum on the ballot to first submit 1,000 valid signatures and the full text of the law, or section of the law, to the Secretary of State’s office for certification. Petitioners collected 2,451 signatures, of which 1,444 were deemed valid. The Secretary also approved the full text of the law submitted with the signatures.

Once the signatures and text have been certified by the Secretary of State, and the petition summary has been certified by the Attorney General, petitioners may begin collecting the required 231,150 valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot. In this case, petitioners would have until Dec. 25, 2011, to collect the required signatures.

The double primary came about to handle the timeline for signatures.

The first primary election, to be in March, will include local and state legislative races, as well as the U.S. Senate race. The second primary, to be in June, will include the congressional and presidential races.

“It’s going to make us the laughingstock of the country,” Democratic State Rep. Connie Pillich told NPR Radio.

Republicans blame Democrats for challenging the new congressional maps.

Rep. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, said, “We still don’t have a map. And I think that’s another reason why we want to keep the primaries separate so that it doesn’t throw into confusion when we’d be able to vote for county commissioners and county auditors and state reps and state senators and that sort of thing.”

The extra primary is expected to cost the state $15 million.

Ohio 17th District Sen. David Daniels (R-Greenfield) said that he wants to see a solution that will bring "certainty" back to the voters. 

"We're trying to find solutions other than holding two primaries,"

Daniels said. "But right now, that's the only way we could guarantee the integrity and the timelines set as far as the elections this year."

Daniels said that he would like to see "that we simply enact the Congressional districts that the apportionment board drew and then go on with life. Nobody ever likes the lines. Nobody ever likes what happens. There have been numerous attempts over the last four years to change the process. If I had a magic wand, I would go ahead with the Congressional board and bring certainty back to the election process for all the citizens of the state of Ohio."

Daniels said that he feels the funds that will have to be put toward the second election could be put toward more constructive uses, but that the state will cover the cost.

"The state pays for this. The taxpayers pay for this, but the cost of this will be funded out of the state budget," Daniels said. "It's an expense that, quite frankly, can be used for better purposes. We could put that money into the local government fund, or in any number of areas that have been cut through the budget process that could be revisited."

The GOP's proposed congressional district places Highland County in a Columbus and eastern Ohio district, with virtually none of its neighboring counties.

It was reported September by The Highland County Press, that a retired mechanical nuclear engineer from Coshocton, has proposed a legislative redistricting map for Ohio which would have kept Highland County in the Third Congressional District, only with more of its neighboring counties.

Highland County Democratic Chairperson Dinah Phillips, who is also a member of the Highland County Board of Elections, said that she is concerned about the expense of the election - which she estimates will be between $50,000 to $75,000 - and what it will do to voters' confidence in government.

"It's going to be a huge expense, not only for the board of elections, but for the county," Phillips said. "The budget for the entire county has been slashed in every department, and we have tried to do our part over the years to operate within a fiscally sound management policy."

Phillips gives credit to dedicated volunteers who work at the board of elections office, saying that without them, she doesn't know how they would be able to operate the office.

"We have three full-time employees. Most counties our size have five to six employees," Phillips said. "We are absolutely blessed with our volunteers. If we didn't have them, I'm not sure we could pull the elections off."

Phillips said that she thinks that voter confidence is on the decline, and she feels that having two primaries will only confuse and further distance the people the boards of elections and the state legislature serve.

"I just can't see the reasoning and the logic behind holding separate primary elections," Phillips said. "We've not done this at any other time that I've been on the board or chairman of the Democratic party. I don't know what advantage this is going to be to the public. I've talked with other board members from Brown and Adams and Fayette counties in the last three or four days, and they have all indicated their displeasure and dismay to hold a second election. Is it really going to be worth all that expense and worth it to expend that amount of money just for an extra election? Not in my opinion."

Phillips said that she doesn't see how a second primary is being responsible to the people of Ohio.

"From the Democratic chairman point of view, the public has elected these Republicans because they were supposed to be the 'fiscally responsible party.' This, in my opinion, is not being fiscally responsible. It is about the most irresponsible thing I think anybody has done in a long time. It's divisive. It makes it difficult to get candidates. People are really upset with government, and this is one of the reasons why. I think that it's fiscal irresponsibility. I think it makes it very difficult because the public gets so upset at these types of issues, and therefore they just don't vote. They think both political parties are responsible for this and they think, 'Well, now I won't even vote.' My concern is, when you're on the board of elections, you want to make it easier for people to vote. This makes it more difficult for people to express an opinion through the ballot box."

An editorial by Robert Brems Sr., a citizen member of the Coshocton Tribune Editorial Board, appeared in the Sept. 25 Zanesville Times-Recorder. 

In his editorial, Brems said, "The Republican-dominated redistricting committee for the state of Ohio has spit in the face of Ohio voters with their new, heavily partisan, grossly gerrymandered Ohio Congressional District map This gross misuse of political power is the reason most people have tuned out of the political process because it reeks of political self-interest, not the public's interest. This is not what the people want from their government."

Brems, who says he is a lifelong registered Republican, said he was one of two people who provided testimony at the Redistricting Committee's public meeting July 20 in Zanesville. 

His proposed redistricting map, which also is available on the Ohio Secretary of State's website, places Highland, Adams, Brown, Clinton and Fayette counties (and others) in the same southwest Ohio Third Congressional District.

Ohio 17th District Sen. David Daniels (R-Greenfield) voted in favor of the bill as did 86th House District Rep. Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, who also represents Highland County.