Announcer: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the hosted, the program and its guests.

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Doni: When it comes to voting, the world as we know it is changing.

I don't have to remind you that lives have been lost in the most horrific of ways and personal dignity shattered all in pursuit of the right to influence the direction of this country, of our lives through the right to vote.

You may think that we've left such things as poll taxes and Jim Crow behind long ago.

Well, maybe.

Or maybe they present a bit differently now.

Whatever the case these days, voting is more important than ever.

Join us as we discuss the reasons why with our guest and Paine, president of the League of Women Voters.

I'm DonI Miller and welcome to the Point.

Connect with us on our social media pages.

Please email me at doni _miller@wgte.org for this episode and other additional extras, please go wgte.org/To that point, I am so excited to have with me Ann Payne, who is the president of the League of Women Voters.

Welcome.

We've got two huge topics to talk about.

And so I want to get right to it.

One of the things that I've been very concerned about is the change in the requirements for eligibility to vote in Ohio.

I've been concerned about it for several reasons.

Some of the changes are major changes, and there hasn't been a whole lot of discussion about those changes.

And we have an election coming up in in eight weeks, six weeks, something like that from the last day as well.

Ann: In August and.

Doni: August.

Right.

And so I wanted us to to talk about this morning what some of those changes are.

And so people will know what they have to fix and and they don't have their right to vote intercept ID this year because there are some important things on the ballot.

Absolutely important things on the ballot.

What is the one change in in voting eligibility that that sticks in your mind the most?

Ann: Well, I think a very important change, although many people will say that's not a problem, is that you no longer you must use photo ID, you no longer can use a utility bill or even a state school.

Transcript to prove who you are.

Some of the things that that were acceptable to be able to identify yourself as a legitimate voter are no longer acceptable.

It must be a photo ID so you a driver's license, which many, many people have state I.D., which some people have a passport, which a few people have, or a passport card or a military ID.

And so you would think that those who are would be ubiquitous and easy to get.

But if you don't have that and though the legislature has said that they will pay, you know, you can get a state ID free, which is great, they had to do that because otherwise there'd be a poll tax.

However, you in order to have a state ID, you must show the documents that prove who you are.

Your birth certificate.

For women, if they've changed their names through marriage or divorce, perhaps that certificate to prove who you are and a lot of people have those, but you may not necessarily have those those documents.

And those are expensive.

Doni: They are.

And there is no we tend to not think about it this way.

There there is a whole segment of our society that doesn't drive.

And so they don't have driver's licenses.

And the the ease of taking the utility bill or the, you know, security system bill or whatever, you were taking your gun license.

Yeah, right.

Made or made it all so much easier to vote and I am concerned that and many I think are concerned that unless people understand this new requirement, which is one of, I think eight or nine.

Yes, then then they will get to the polls and they won't be able to vote.

Ann: The very good thing is that there there is a group called Vote Writers, and this this is a group that is willing to help people get those documents, either by if they can't get to the health department to get to get them or if they can't afford them.

Doni: And what's the name of the group again?

Ann: VoteRiders.

I think it's a play on Freedom Riders in the sixties.

Doni: All right.

We'll put that on our website.

I'll get that from you before we before we leave each other today.

Yeah.

County issued veteran IDs Don't don't count for something.

Ann: No, it has to be the real ID for it can't be just like belonging to the Legion post.

You know, it has to be your real ID or could be your guard, National Guard ID, you know, those kinds of things.

Doni: So let me ask you this.

One of the things that I found in my research is that the DMV will place noncitizen labels on driver's license, on the driver's licenses of those who lack citizenship, but who are in this country legally.

Right.

Do you understand the reason for that?

Why?

Well.

Ann: I assume that the reason is to prevent those people from voting.

You know, they'll be identified as as non-citizens in case they try to vote.

I think you're right.

Doni: It only citizens may vote yes.

Ann: Exactly.

And only registered citizens.

You must register in order to vote.

So I think that is a way to deal with the issues that so many think so many people think is ubiquitous when it is not voter fraud.

You know, we don't have a lot of voter fraud.

Doni: Yes.

Is that a new requirement or have they always done that?

Ann: No, that's brand new.

Doni: That's new.

That's brand new.

Ann: And you can see I see the logic with using that to make sure that non-citizens don't vote because people can get confused.

Well, I have an opinion on that.

I think I should vote not knowing that, well, you're not assessed and you can't vote, You're not registered, you can't vote, that kind of thing.

So that would be a innocent mistake.

And I think and I basically I think most voter fraud is are consists of innocent mistakes or clerical errors, that kind of thing.

But but you can see where that that could lead to other issues concerning bias.

Somebody gets stopped and, oh, you're not a citizen kind of thing.

Yeah, that can lead to other things.

I, I don't like the notion and it's just a personal thing that we are labeled right now and our label is like our star that we wear sewn to our uniform, our coats to identify us.

Doni: That's a pretty strong.

Ann: Yeah.

Doni: Pretty strong description there.

The in-person voting has been taken away the Monday.

Ann: Before the Monday before election.

And that was that was always an issue for boards of election.

They would keep you would keep they would keep working the polls until I think it was mid-afternoon and then they would have to get ready for the.

Doni: Election.

Ann: The next day.

So that the the issue, of course, for us is that we want voting to be as easy and is available as possible.

So so but we understand that boards of election need time to get ready.

So I think that is not such a problem.

Absentee voting.

So I changed.

Doni: Has it changed?

I was going to ask you that.

Ann: Well, it used to be that you would still request an absentee ballot three days before the election.

Now it has to be a full week.

And the other change is when the ballot is received in the at the board of elections.

It used to be it was stamped postmarked by Election Day.

Mm hmm.

They would they would count it even if if they received it a week afterwards.

But now it's only four days afterwards and it has to be the day before.

Can't be Election Day.

So those are in terms of how the Postal Service works and the timing of of mail and how you get it and the efficiency and all of that, especially since I was close to Detroit and.

Doni: Coming back to Banchory.

Ann: Maybe multiple times.

Doni: I don't know.

Ann: You know, that's an issue.

So so people have to understand if you're going to vote absentee on your kitchen table, you need to get that ballot quickly, fast.

So you need to fill out the request form and send that to the board of Elections.

You can do that online.

Mm hmm.

And and then when you get your ballot, do it as quickly as possible.

Doni: Quickly as possible.

Getting lots of people vote absentee.

So it's really important that they that they understand that change.

So the idea has to have it has to be a photo ID, but there are exemptions, are there not, for people who perhaps for religious reasons, avoid having their pictures taken?

Amish would be an example.

Yeah.

Ann: Yeah.

Doni: What's that exemption?

Ann: Well, you have to apply.

And I'm thinking if I know enough to say it at the.

Doni: I think that is, as I recall, that it had to do, it allowed the casting of a provisional ballot.

Oh, yes, that's right.

The provisional ballot did not.

Ann: Yeah.

Would allow the casting of a provisional ballot as as most and that is the thing people have to understand.

If somebody at the poll says no, you know, you're not in you know, I don't know what to do with you.

And you say, yes, I, I am a voter, you know, demand or ask to to cast a provisional ballot.

But what has to happen when you cast a provisional ballot?

It is provisional and it won't count unless you fix it so that you have to then go to the board of elections and solve whatever problem it was.

Doni: And there is a time limit on that, is there?

Not like four days?

Yes.

Ann: Yes, it is four days.

So you have to you have to do that immediately.

So it it is a way to preserve your your right to vote and to cast your vote and and express your opinion.

But it's it's not done.

Once you cast the provisional ballot, because unless you solve the problem that created the need for the provisional ballot, it won't count.

Right.

Doni: Right.

These these seem on their face, as you've mentioned several times, they seem sort of unassuming and non-threatening until you realize that every one of these things could avoid you from casting a ballot, that's a ballot that will be considered.

Right.

And again, we've got some very important issues coming up.

We're going to discuss in our second segment, one that is particularly in importance to you, and that's amending the state's constitution.

But there was one other one other change that I found particularly difficult to manage, and that is the elimination of curbside voting.

The and the reason that people ought to know that, that what this essentially does is for those folks who have some physical challenge in some way, they now can no longer vote from their car at the curb.

Is that correct?

I have that.

Ann: Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

There there are ways that handicapped people or disabled folks can vote even on their computer.

I mean, it's it is something that I really wasn't aware of.

But the Board of Elections says.

Doni: That they didn't know that either.

Ann: Yeah, but it is a special form you fill out and then you communicate with the board and then they will send you a ballot on your you know, that your.

Doni: Computer and you can use that.

Ann: So you can do that.

Someone can stand if there's a line, someone can stand in line for you, you know, until you get up there.

Doni: I think at the end of the day, what we really want to leave people with today is that voting has changed.

Yes.

And you have an obligation, if you want your vote to count, to make sure that you understand the changes and that you were in compliance or your vote will not count.

Right.

Please stay with me.

We're going to go away.

We'll be right back.

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Doni: Connect with us as usual on our social media pages, or you may email me at doni _miller@wgte.org again for this episode and other additional extras.

Please go to WGTE.org/To the point, as you know, if you if you've been watching us we've been talking to Ann Payne.

I got it right that time.

Did I ask about not only changes in the election laws but also a particularly challenging proposition that will be on the ballot and that is the way in which the Ohio Constitution is is amended.

Would you tell folks exactly what the proposal is?

Would you tell folks exactly what the proposal is?

Ann: It's issue one.

It's the only issue on the August election ballot.

So that's an important part of this, is to understand that there's an election coming up in about five or six weeks, August 8th, and, uh, who remembers that?

That there is anything to vote on in the summer.

But it is about changing how we amend the Constitution currently, you can gather signatures on a proposal, a petition, and get 5% of the number of people who voted in the last election for governor in 44 counties.

Get those same number of signatures on the ballot and then get the proposal on the ballot.

If those signatures are valid and it will pass or fail by a simple majority of 50% plus one.

The proposal is that to pass an amendment, it would become it would be required to have 60% passage rate, meaning that 40% plus one of the people who vote and voted no would be deciding would be the deciding factor of whether something summit, something gets on the Constitution or not, and that is minority rule, not a majority measure.

We think.

We think that eliminates the principle of one person, one vote, because those 40% plus one, their votes count more.

And we think that that is undemocratic.

Also, in order to get a proposal on the ballot for the voters to decide whether it's a good proposal or a bad proposal and whether they want it to pass or not.

Now, the law or this this issue says and requests that you get that same percentage of votes for the governor in each of the 88 counties.

So that increases vastly the number of signatures you have to get the the rationale that has been given.

One of the rationales that has been given is that it's a constitutional amendment.

It should be hard it should be hard to amend the Constitution.

But the Constitution in states are working documents and they are the only this is the only way that the voters have the ability to correct the general Assembly if they feel that the General Assembly is not.

Doni: Who's gotten it wrong.

Ann: So yeah, has got it wrong in some ways.

Not doing what the voters feel is important or is doing self-serving kinds of things.

Doni: Legislature.

This is a great time to explain exactly who the League of Women Voters are and your position is not taken because you are siding with Democrats or you're siding with Republicans.

You want to tell folks a little bit.

Ann: The league is a nonpartisan political organization that we don't work for or against candidates or parties.

We we are nonpartisan.

We we focus on issues.

And our whole point of existence is to help citizens, help voters express their their voice.

We are interested in making voting is as easy and as open and free as possible to those who are eligible to vote.

And we provide information.

We want voters to be informed, you know, and to to make choices that are appropriate for them, and they decide what that is.

And so we publish voter's guide for every every general election.

We publish a directory of public officials that lists every elected official in the county.

We will hold forums for it.

We help organizations basically hold these forums.

We used to do them ourselves when we thought this is a hot issue.

We need.

People must want to know about this.

We told the forum and nobody had go or or the the folks that, you know, have real strong opinions about either way.

So we speaking to the to the converted or the crowd that you know, has an opinion instead of sharing information, which is the whole point, not to propose necessarily what we believe, because we do have positions on things like the election in August.

We believe that that issue is undemocratic and we are urging people to vote no on that because that falls within our bailiwick.

We are trying to promote protect democracy.

We we feel strongly with the ears, I guess is what I should say to the women's suffrage movement.

We were founded immediately afterwards and actually in Toledo, the little bit of money that the suffrage organization of Toledo had turned into the the money for the League of Women Voters, the Treasury for the.

Doni: We are a national organization.

Yes.

Ann: We are.

Yeah.

National and state.

Doni: Yeah.

Ann: Yeah.

And local.

Doni: So you're particularly interested in this issue.

And it's important to say that you don't take public positions on every issue that comes along.

No, this one caught the attention of your organization because you feel that it's an insult to democracy.

Why do you feel that way?

Ann: We think it violates the first principle one person, one vote.

And we also think it's rather suspicious that it is being presented in in an off election and election that the legislature in January passed a law saying we will no longer have August elections unless it is a financial issue.

That is an emergency financial issue.

So they have violated the law they passed.

And because because the elections in August and summer have very slow, low turnout and single digit 7% was the last summer election and they cost $20 million.

The other thing is that the legislature has freely stated that the reason for doing this and this issue, this proposition and to make the the Constitution harder to amend is that they are anticipating the women's health abortion rights amendment coming down the pike and being on the November ballot this.

So they are creating this to prevent a single issue from becoming a constitutional amendment.

But in doing that, they are preventing making it harder for voters, citizens to exercise their citizenship rights, of putting things on the ballot is going to be near impossible to do it, to collect all the signatures necessary in every county, you know, so you get 4.5% of the signatures in Preble County or.

Preble.

Doni: Mm.

Ann: You don't get on the ballot, you know, and there is no.

And this issue also says there's no cure time.

Currently, if you present something to the boards of elections, they check your signatures and they say, oh, you know, these have to be removed and you're 100,000 short.

You have ten days to try to fix it, try.

Doni: To fix it.

Ann: Local time.

Now, people.

Doni: Who support and it's really interesting to to see the list of folks who supported and those who don't support it and those folks who support this issue say that the issues actually designed to protect the Constitution.

You would disagree with that.

They they are saying that the issue is designed to protect the Constitution from a couple of things.

One of them being special interest groups and the other being things that they don't think appropriately belong in in the Constitution.

And and you would disagree with that?

Ann: I do.

I understand that argument.

The US Constitution is a document that shows how our government should function and has all the detail, and it is seldom amended and it usually is amended to correct an issue that the Constitution left and spoken about.

State constitutions also have that.

But basically we take our government structure from the national and state constitutions have all sorts of detail in them.

And I find it a disingenuous argument at this time.

The voters have had this right to amend the Constitution for over 100 years in this process.

It was it was it became part of the Constitution after in the 1912 Constitutional Convention in Ohio.

And in that time, there have been, I think most of the amendments that have been put on a ballot have been from the legislature itself.

There have only been 71 amendments put on ballot through voter.

Doni: So we have one minute left.

Oh, one minute left.

I know it's a big subject for for the time we had today.

One minute left in that minute.

Quickly, what would you tell people that they need to do in this August election?

Why is it important that they vote?

Ann: It is important to preserve voted the voting right to X to correct the legislature.

And it is not about one issue.

It's not about abortion rights.

It's not about minimum wage.

It's not about marijuana.

It's about our rights to correct the right to correct the legislature.

Doni: Thank you so much for being with us today.

Obviously, we need to talk about this one more time at least.

And thank you so much for joining us.

On to the Point.

We will see you next week.

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