The Ohio legislature can develop an election integrity agenda to make policy changes that restore public trust in the elections process.
Contact your state representative and tell them you want election integrity to be a priority this legislative session!
Without your help, the public will lose faith.
If state lawmakers do not safeguard elections, voters will lose trust in public institutions and the electoral process, disengaging from political life and self-governance.
Was your vote counted?
THE PROBLEM: Ohio allows anyone to mail absentee applications to voters. This leaves the door open for bad actors to harvest votes for their preferred candidate(s).
THE SOLUTION: Ohio should work to ban ballot harvesting, and it’s up to your representative to make it happen.
What your state representative can do:
1. Prohibit government officials from mailing unsolicited absentee ballot applications to voters.
2. Prohibit third parties from distributing absentee ballot applications.
Candidates and campaigns often mail out pre-filled absentee ballot applications containing errors or addressed to ineligible voters. Last year, THOUSANDS of Ohioans were sent pre-filled applications with incomplete information.
Absentee ballot applications should only be sent by Ohio election officials at the request of each voter to avoid confusion and error.
Ohio lawmakers should ban this practice. Other states like Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Iowa all have.
It’s time for Ohio to catch up. Let your representative know that they should prohibit government officials and third parties from distributing unsolicited absentee applications!
Your state is facilitating fraud.
This is a big deal.
How? Ohio allows ballots to be received after polls are closed.
In Ohio, absentee ballots can be received up to 10 days AFTER Election Day. I think you’ll agree: This practice can facilitate fraud and Ohio should only permit late-arriving ballots from military members and overseas state citizens.
So what can you do? Let your representative know that Ohio should require absentee ballots to be received by the time polls close on election night.
Here’s the deal: Ohio is behind.
A majority of states require ballots to be received on or before Election Day, including:
Just a drop in the…ballot box?
Drop boxes weren’t used widely until the 2020 election in response to COVID-19. Now, the time for drop boxes has passed and they are no longer needed in future elections.
Ohio should prohibit the use of ballot drop boxes and if lawmakers allow the use of them, they should be monitored by 24/7 video surveillance.
It’s simple. Drop boxes can be placed in government buildings, as many are equipped with video recording systems. This is a win-win. This reform is low-cost but would add a high level of accountability to the vote-counting process.
Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and Kentucky all recently enacted legislation to address this issue. Ohio needs to take the next step and ban ballot drop boxes or constantly monitor them.