So the nasty Ohio election bill, HB 3, passed the Ohio Senate on Tuesday, but the House, expected to approve the Senate changes today,
delayed the vote.
The Ohio House on Wednesday delayed its expected approval of changes the Senate made to a bill that would alter election law, including requiring voters show identification at the polls. Majority Republicans were meeting privately to discuss the bill.
A rundown of Senate changes here, text of House version here
More below the fold.
This may mean only one day's reprieve, since the House meets tomorrow, but there is still time to act. If you are from Ohio, contact your representative
now and call on her/him to vote no. Contact info for
all Ohio state representatives can be found by
zip code and
district.
If the worst should happen in the House, Secretary of State candidate Jennifer Brunner is circulating a petition calling on Governor Taft to veto the bill. Click here to sign the petition.
For those tuning in, a refresher (by no means complete!!) on the travesties in this law:
HB 3 would effectively end court contests of elections to the US House, the US Senate, and the Presidency, leaving contested elections to be reviewed and decided entirely by a majority vote in the Congress (see comments as well). Comforting, eh?
The other provision eliminates Ohio's contest for all federal elections, inclusing both presidential and congressional contests. Sub HB 3 provides that such contests "shall be conducted with the applicable provisions of federal law."
It is not clear what law this is referring to, as there is no analogous federal statute providing for contests. Perhaps "federal law" refers to the timetable for electoral ballot counting. Yet federal law contains no contest provision, but instead requires Congress to defer to the states, in cases where there's been a "final determination" of any election contests or controversies by the safe harbor date.
HB 3 would take voter suppression to a level remarkable even by 2004's standards. See page four of the linked League of Women Voters report.
HB 3 would eliminate the random selection of hand-counted precincts in a recount.
It's hard to overstate the importance of stopping this legislation. Ohioans, CALL THOSE REPRESENTATIVES. The fight continues.