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Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
Possible
repeal of new elections law
puts congressional redistricting in time crunch
By Aaron Marshall
Saturday, August 13, 2011
COLUMBUS,
Ohio — A petition drive
aimed at overturning a new election law could wreak havoc on this
year’s
congressional redistricting process.
The
new law makes dozens of changes to
Ohio’s elections law, including moving next year’s primary from March
to May,
an extra cushion of time for GOP map-makers to configure new
congressional
districts that need to be in place at least 90 days before the primary
date.
But
if the signature-gathering effort
is successful, it would put the new law on ice and keep the primary in
March,
imposing a tighter deadline on the redistricting process, which is
especially
complicated this year because Ohio’s 18 congressional seats must be
whittled to
16
The
tumbling dominoes that could be
put into action by the petition drive will likely force state lawmakers
to
quickly pass another bill this fall dealing only with moving the
primary to
May, according to Mike Dittoe, spokesman for House Speaker William G.
Batchelder, a Medina Republican.
“I
know it’s something that has
absolutely been talked about in the House, and it’s something that
would be a
good idea because of the redistricting” problem, Dittoe said. “We want
to make
sure there is ample time for redistricting because of how important it
is.”
Republicans
control the congressional
line-making process because they hold solid majorities in both the
House and
Senate and the governor’s office as well, and redistricting follows a
normal
bill process.
Jennifer
Brunner, the Democratic
former Secretary of State, is part of a coalition named Fair Elections
Ohio
that wants to repeal the new election law, which is slated to take
effect Sept.
30. The group wants the question before voters on the November 2012
ballot.
She
said the redistricting
complications are an unintended consequence of earlier rulings from
Republican
Attorney General Mike DeWine and Republican Secretary of State Jon
Husted that
directed the group to tackle the whole bill instead of just the
portions they
wished to see repealed.
The
group is still waiting on a green
light from the pair before it can begin its effort to gather 231,184
valid
signatures by Sept. 30 to keep the law off the books.
Brunner
said the group is most
concerned about provisions that shorten the time frame for early
voting, block
county elections boards from sending unsolicited absentee ballot
applications to
voters and change a requirement that poll workers must tell a voter who
is
voting in the wrong precinct.
“The
problem is when somebody is
trying to make it harder to vote, we feel an obligation to fight those
laws,”
Brunner said. “We had no interest in moving the primary date but it got
wrapped
up in this because of the rulings from Attorney General DeWine and
Secretary of
State Husted.”
When
Republican lawmakers voted to
pass House Bill 194, supporters said it was needed to combat voter
fraud and
ensure Ohio had one uniform set of election laws.
This
year’s congressional
redistricting process is still in the early stages following a series
of public
hearings. No maps have yet appeared, but U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette
said
recently he has been charged by U.S. House Speaker John Boehner with
putting
together the lines the Ohio GOP delegation will ask state lawmakers to
adopt.
LaTourette
said that a Cleveland-area
congressional member is likely to lose a district because of Cuyahoga
County
population losses over the past decade. Speculation is rampant that
outspoken
Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich will lose his seat.
Read
it at the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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