Ohio’s House Minority Leader said Republican state lawmakers are taking a page from a national playbook as they try to reform voting.
In a teleconference with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and U.S. Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Emilia Sykes (D-Akron) said Ohio’s leaders could make voting easier – for example, by adding ballot drop boxes. But she said they’re going the other direction by making it harder to vote.
“These attacks are part of a nationwide effort to push baseless conspiracy theories and the big lie and they threaten the very foundation of our democracy to protect a delusional man who refuses to accept the results of an election," Sykes said.
Sykes said voting reform legislation under consideration by Congress would protect all voters in Ohio. The “For the People Act” and the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act” have widespread support among Democrats but have failed to gain the support needed to pass.
Republicans at the Ohio Statehouse have said more needs to be done to protect Ohio's voting system from possible fraud and outside intervention.
Recently two voting reforms were slipped into the new two-year budget and passed into law. One new law to prevent collaboration between elections officials and private groups that educate, motivate and advocate for voters. Another bans legal settlements between public officials and third parties that could lead to costly lawsuits.
A Democratic lawmaker has introduced a bill that would repeal both of those provisions.
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