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A Look At The Race For Ohio Secretary Of State

cleveland.com

Ohio's secretary of state oversees elections and keeps track of business filings and campaign finance records. 

The two major party candidates on the November ballot spoke recently with Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler about their plans if elected.

One of the highest-profile duties of the secretary of state’s office was on trial this year. And the US Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s six-year voter roll maintenance process – by which voters are removed if they don’t vote after two years, and for the next four years don’t vote and don’t respond to board of elections mailings. Democratic Representative Kathleen Clyde was outspoken against the process, which she and other critics call voter purging. Clyde notes the court’s decision left voter roll upkeep to the states, and she says if she wins, on day one she would change what she calls the strictest removal process in the country.

“So I kind of wanted to dial that back…with a healthy balance of maintaining the rolls but also making sure elections are accessible and that we're not purging eligible voters. One way we could do this is move Ohio towards automatic voter registration. Then government and cities are doing the work behind the scenes registering everyone and keeping the rolls up to date.”

 

Republican Senator Frank LaRose had been supportive of the process in the past, and after the ruling said it will allow the Secretary of State to maintain accurate voter rolls while still being fair to voters. Now he says he’ll make some changes – and one idea sounds remarkably similar to Clyde’s.

 

“What I'm working on right now is a series of steps that would bring more automated voter registration type processes to the state of Ohio. So when people are interacting with state government, which is for most of us at least once a year, whether it's paying your taxes, renewing your driver's license, getting your fishing license whatever it may be...let's take that opportunity to update their address or to register them to vote if they're not already registered.”

 

Clyde’s automatic voter registration system would sign up everyone unless they opt out and LaRose says he’d prefer it to be voluntary.

 

This year current Secretary of State Jon Husted announced voter registration will be updated when a driver’s license or auto tags are renewed, but it’s unclear whether databases in different state agencies could share information.

 

Whoever wins will have to manage the state’s next big voter project – replacing thousands of voting machines that are a dozen or more years old. The state has set aside more than $114 million to get new machines in place by the 2020 presidential election, but didn’t specify what machines counties must buy. LaRose says that’s appropriate – the bipartisan boards of elections should make those choices.

 

“At a time when it feels like Republicans and Democrats can't agree on what day of the week it is - every county in Ohio has a bipartisan success story. It is your County Board of Elections where every morning by design Republicans and Democrats arrive at work and work together to run elections. Those are the people that should make the decisions about what kind of voting machines they want to buy, not us sitting in Columbus and dictating it to them.”

 

Around half of Ohio’s counties have electronic voting machines and the rest use machines that scan paper ballots – but both have voter verified paper audit trails. Clyde says more voting machine security is needed, so she’d issue a directive to counties on which machines she wants in her overall cybersecurity plan.

 

 

“There would still be a choice. And we also have to make sure that we are considering accessibility issues which touch screen machines, help some voters with disabilities vote independently. So there's tweaks that we can make. But yes, the safest, most secure voting system is a paper ballot system.”

 

On campaign finance reform - there’s agreement. Clyde says she’d support LaRose’s plan to require local candidates to file electronic forms that are more easily searchable. And LaRose says Clyde’s proposal to require more disclosure of donors of so-called “dark money” would help with overall transparency. On the business side of the office, both say they want to change some regulations and streamline the business filing process. Clyde says she also wants to waive business setup fees for veterans, and LaRose – who is a veteran – says he wants to look into creating special court dockets to settle business disputes.

 

The Statehouse News Bureau was founded in 1980 to provide educational, comprehensive coverage of legislation, elections, issues and other activities surrounding the Statehouse to Ohio's public radio and television stations. To this day, the Bureau remains the only broadcast outlet dedicated to in-depth coverage of state government news and topics of statewide interest. The Bureau is funded througheTech Ohio, and is managed by ideastream. The reporters at the Bureau follow the concerns of the citizens and voters of Ohio, as well as the actions of the Governor, the Ohio General Assembly, the Ohio Supreme Court, and other elected officials. We strive to cover statehouse news, government issues, Ohio politics, and concerns of business, culture and the arts with balance and fairness, and work to present diverse voices and points of view from the Statehouse and throughout Ohio. The three award-winning journalists at the bureau have more than 60 combined years of radio and television experience. They can be heard on National Public Radio and are regular contributors to Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Marketplace. Every weekday, the Statehouse News Bureau produces in-depth news reports forOhio's public radio stations. Those stories are also available on this website, either on the front page or in our archives. Weekly, the Statehouse News Bureau produces a television show from our studios in the Statehouse. The State of Ohio is an unique blend of news, interviews, talk and analysis, and is broadcast on Ohio's public television stations. The Statehouse News Bureau also produces special programming throughout the year, including the Governor's annual State of the State address to the Ohio General Assembly and a five-part year-end review.
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