Shownotes
Empowering Voters: Understanding Campaign Financing, Fair Districting, and Poll Participation
Brett and Carol chat with Jen Miller, the Executive Director of the League of Women Voters Ohio, about the nitty-gritty of ballot issues and voting policies.
Jen talks about a cool bipartisan effort to draft a new amendment (Issue 1), mentioning notable figures like Maureen O'Connor and Yvette McGee Brown. This amendment has some serious backing from a wide range of groups, including teachers' and nurses' unions, the NAACP, and even the Libertarian Party.
The conversation takes a turn towards the topic of dark money in politics, which became a hot issue after the Citizens United decision. Jen underscores the need for transparency so voters know who’s funding political ads. She’s passionate about ending gerrymandering, believing it would make legislatures more responsive and improve policymaking. Gerrymandering, she argues, kills voter satisfaction and participation.
More engagement and compromise in the legislature would tone down extremism and serve citizens better. Jen encourages everyone to get involved in democracy, pointing to resources like vote411.org and voteohio.gov. She also talks about the importance of becoming poll workers and making sure our communities are ready to vote.
Jen criticizes gerrymandering for reducing accountability and allowing representatives to focus more on party extremes and big donors rather than a broader voter base. Despite these obstacles, she urges citizens to stay vocal and visit district offices.
The League of Women Voters Ohio is highlighted as a diverse organization in terms of age, offering great opportunities for mentorship between older and younger members. Jen gives tips on making voting less intimidating for young voters, like checking registration and polling locations since these frequently change.
We talk about Ohio’s strict voter ID requirements—now including passports and specific veteran IDs while excluding county veteran IDs. Jen calls for veterans to advocate for changes to these laws. There's also a mention of fewer candidates participating in forums, which reduces chances for voter-candidate interactions. The League organizes forums with a “speed dating” style to let voters meet candidates without heated debates.
Jen and Brett discuss the rise of misinformation and the need for consuming diverse media to keep from getting stuck in echo chambers. Brett expresses frustration when candidates don't take forum questions seriously, feeling it reflects poorly on their ability to serve in office. They both mention the impact of gerrymandering on these issues.
In Ohio, recent changes to the election process have led to voter dissatisfaction, partly fueled by misinformation from elected officials. Jen suggests voters hold state authorities like the Secretary of State accountable for election integrity. She also lists ways to engage, like attending hearings, contacting election boards, volunteering as poll workers, and using the Election Protection Hotline (866-OUR-VOTE) for any issues.
The League of Women Voters is all about fair election practices and doesn't play sides. They've been around since the Ohio Women's Suffrage Association days, focusing on empowering voters, especially women. They operate on national, state, and local levels and rely heavily on volunteers to keep things running smoothly.
Jen emphasizes the importance of informed voting and spells out the steps for absentee/mail voters, urging them not to procrastinate. Tips include mailing ballots early and using county dropboxes to avoid delays. She also goes over Ohio's strict ID requirements again, stressing that voters need to check what’s valid now.
Jen dives deeper into gerrymandering, explaining Issue 1 (OH), which aims to reform the redistricting process. The goal is to keep politicians and lobbyists out, ensure a balanced commission, and maintain transparency. Past efforts to end gerrymandering in Ohio didn’t pan out well, but the League is committed to pushing for fair district maps and getting citizens involved.
While the voting system isn't perfect, continuous efforts and active participation can lead to better outcomes for everyone.
Key Moments
00:00 Ohio Women's Suffrage evolved into inclusive voting league.
05:39 Ohio League's strength lies in national connection.
15:38 Frustration arises from misallocated responsibilities and misunderstanding.
17:24 Connecting voters and candidates through local forums.
26:41 Gerrymandering undermines fair elections and representation.
32:04 Check ID requirements; Ohio's strict voter rules.
36:27 Security ensures bipartisan participation and de-escalation volunteers.
40:46 Check voting plan, ID required, hours change.
52:12 Independent voices in Ohio redistricting, preventing secrecy.
57:27 League watchdogs educate public on map processes.
01:03:57 Advocate for transparency, end gerrymandering, promote solutions.
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Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle270Media Podcast Consultants.
Copyright 2024 Carol Ventresca and Brett Johnson
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Transcripts
Looking Forward Our Way podcast addresses today's critical issues affecting those 50 and over in Ohio. We focus on issues that affect our money and our neighborhoods. Our expert guests are here to provide the information and resources needed to address these challenges. We are looking forward our way. Hi. This is Brett. Each year, we include a podcast on the issues of voting in our community. This year, it's critical to understand the process and to exercise our right and responsibility to vote.
Brett Johnson [:We're honored to have Jen Miller, the executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio as our expert guest. Jen, thanks for joining us.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Thanks for having me. We're we
Carol Ventresca [:are so glad to see you, and and we know how busy your schedule is right now. But it we really thought this was an important year to to get information from the league and find out more about you and and what's going on. But before we actually jump into information about the league, let's hear a little bit more about you and what brought you to the league.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So I'm a proud daughter of Ohio. I grew up in North Central Ohio, and my parents were business owners. My grandparents worked in agriculture in small business, and I love Ohio. And, I think my parents and grandparents were civic leaders, but really in a nonpartisan way. Right? Because they were out of business. And so, I've always really cared about systems and politics and how we can promote a better Ohio, but I've never really seen that through, I've never really seen that through the party lens. And so the league is a perfect fit for me since our North Star
Carol Ventresca [:are voters. And it's really where the difficulty that so many voters have today is what they are hearing is only from a party perspective as and they're not really hearing that, what's important for you and what's going to be the best plan for you information.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Absolutely. So the league has a 104 year history. And, in that, we've never taken stances on parties. We've never supported or opposed candidates. We are fiercely nonpartisan. And and there's a lot of aspects of Ohio's election system that we help secure, things that we now take for granted, but that we help secure. So, election administration plans, which is when boards of elections plan and make public, how they're gonna handle turnout, post election audits, absentee voting, or sometimes people call it voting by mail, the bipartisan oversight of polling locations and the entire board of election system, fairness in balloting, testing and certification of voting machines, youth at the booth, which is where 17 year olds can work as poll workers and get paid and skipped. Right.
Carol Ventresca [:And skipped and skipped. There you go.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:No. There's a lot of aspects of voting that we have worked on, and and I love that history because it shows how much we care about voters and really the election system itself. We want it to work for voters.
Carol Ventresca [:You know, let what I love about the League of Women Voters is the name. Mhmm. One of the one of the things that I am always telling I told my students and I tell my young cousins is that, you know, women just recently got the right to vote. My grandmother would not have been able to vote most of her life. So the hearing that it's called the league of women voters, that makes it really special. So I I just wanna thank you and all of your team for everything that they do.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Well, let me jump in there because our predecessor was the Ohio Women's Suffrage Association. Right. So, we've transformed into the league as we expected women to get the right to vote. You know, the Women's Suffrage Association had tried multiple times through ballot initiatives to get women the right to vote here in Ohio, unsuccessfully. And so the only victory we had was in the 1890s where women were able to vote for school board, but not any other race on the ballot. And so, what that meant for us was as women were getting the right to vote, we wanted to make sure that they understood the logistics of voting that, and this was really to teach women by women all the wheres, the hows, the whats, the logistics. But I mean and we're gonna keep the name, the League of Women Voters, and we are primarily a women's organization. But I should mention that we have members and leaders of all gender and, and and, you know, we want everyone to join, even if they are not a woman themselves.
Brett Johnson [:Well, that you know, we've talked about and we all know there's a a ton of misinformation on it. National, local, you know, state level, that sort of thing, it's it's just prevalent everywhere. And and and League of Women Voters is a national organization, as you mentioned, that, you know, promotes the the voting that promotes voting, I should say, but, you know, in an an an unbiased complete information resource driven sort of thing. So I I got a couple of layers in regards to how you approach this. So it's a national organization, but how do you as a Ohio chapter, I guess you would call it, or Ohio Ohio organization, make it work here in Ohio as being a national organization? You know, some history, goals, successes, at least on Ohio level.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So all those things I pointed out at the beginning were actually Ohio victories. All of them yeah. And so a a lot of those things, the national organization, championed as well. But when you are a member of the league, you are a member of the local league, the state league, and the national league. And what makes us strong, I think in a lot of ways, is that at the national level, they have the benefit of knowing voters' experiences, and and what's happening at the policy level in Ohio and at the local level and vice versa. And so one of the things that's powerful about this is that we have very real knowledge, not just of what's happening on the ground locally or what's happening in the statehouse, but what's happening across the country and in DC. And that makes us incredibly strong. One thing I wanna point out is that the Ohio League has always been one of the strongest state leagues in the country.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Even the 2nd president of the National League came from Ohio. Our nonpartisan status was insisted on by Belle Sherwin from Cleveland. Our voter guide, which we're known for, started in Cleveland in the 19 twenties. And our voter guide now is online, vote411.org. And that is a tool that is managed and used at all three levels. So you can use that anywhere. One thing I will mention is that at the local level, we are run by volunteers. At the state level, we use a lot of volunteers, but at the local level, we're almost entirely volunteer run.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So we need members from across the state of Ohio who are gonna join, and maybe they'll help put on candidate forums. Or if you still have print voter guides in your community, those are done by volunteers. Vote411.org is is the online presence where the 3 organizations can collaborate the best. But volunteer power is still key to what we do at League.
Carol Ventresca [:One of the con the key concerns I have is that voters, don't see themselves as having an important role in the process. I realized that we need to have protections to make sure that individuals remained eligible, and that we shouldn't emphasize keeping peep that we should emphasize keeping people connected to the voting process. Instead, what seems to be happening is we're pushing them away. What you hear on the news is all the time, oh, the secretary of state has taken a 100,000 people off the voter rolls. How do we keep people engaged and realizing the importance of their role as a voter?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Yeah. So I think it's really important to talk about the fact that if you're an infrequent voter, you can after 6 years, you can be removed from the rolls. But, also, additionally, a lot of times people move or they change their name, and they forget to update their registration. So a best practice is to always check your registration before the voter registration deadline to make sure it's up to date. So when we think about a voting plan, even for our most consistent voters, we say it starts by checking your registration and making sure it's up to date.
Brett Johnson [:And, you know, in that vein too of of being consistent with your voting, it it's it seems like we should be encouraging voters, potential voters as well to, we should be encouraging it all the time, not to vote all the time, but, you know, that it it should be a constant conversation, you know, instead of waiting for the next election cycle when we simply put some social media and on and registration deadlines, that sort of thing. What do you think we could do to convince individuals to commit to voting? I mean, start with school age children or, you know, maybe maybe start at the high school. Let me know as we get closer to that eligibility time, that sort of thing. When should we start, and how do we carry it on?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So I think one thing is, a little more philosophical, but I think as a culture, we are democratic. Think about at a time when maybe your family voted on how you where you're gonna go on vacation, or the classroom voted on whether they wanted pizza or ice cream for their big end of the year party. You know, we are culturally, we are a democracy. And so I think that we just need to remind folks that, voting is who we are, and that every election matters, and every race matters. One of the things I worry about is that, some folks will only show up to vote for the presidential election. Right? But these local races, these local candidates, especially if you think about judges, can affect our daily lives. And I I think it comes down to demystifying the ways that government works and the way that those who represent us, what their jobs are. And we start that, of course, in school.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:You know, we have a program called voter girl with the girl scouts. We have volunteers who go into high school classes and teach basic civics and register those who are old enough to vote, but give pledge to vote cards for those who aren't. It has a QR code. They could put their information in, and we will send them information on how to register once they turn 18. This year, we took an Airstream to 20 college campuses just to get students excited. We got them registered, but a lot of times we were also just demystifying, the various voting processes and answering questions and trying to build a culture of excitement around voting. But I also think that voting is step 1. It's not the last step.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:The next step is how do we help everyday Ohioans know who to contact when there's an issue that's impacting them? How do we help them find their city council member or their state rep or their congressperson? And and that's another thing that we love to do at League is just to demystify that process so that people can be heard throughout the entire calendar year, even if an election isn't happening right at that minute.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. You know, there there are always pros and cons to everything. And for as, as political as the last 4 to 6 to 8 years has been in regards to just the blow up of everything, It does seem that more people are involved. They have a bit more consciousness of the process or and again, it's tinted with anger. I understand that, you know, but it's that we kinda know that, oh, this can happen. Oh, didn't know that happened then, that sort of thing. I think we're being educated on the fly to a certain degree, good or bad. Again, it's a it's a both a yin and a yang to this, but it's, maybe there's a bit more at least acknowledgment of the process, and and and and and and maybe more uncomfortable.
Brett Johnson [:But you're right. It's that, okay. I have a problem. Who do I go to? That education piece to it is one step into, oh, this is what government can do or can't do, and and now I'm part of the process. Yeah.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:You know, we have a new card that we just experimented within the field this year, and it's called your voice, your power card. And instead of saying who the candidates are, it says kind of what their jobs are. Mhmm. Because I think if we know what what the candidate's job is, we might have a better chance of deciding who's most qualified for it. And, also, then when you're seeing something in your community that you would like to be different, you know who might be the best to contact in terms of your elected officials. And I think we need to just continue to do more of that.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Well, we could we could make make or have a little laugh at we we interviewed the, the county auditor, a while back, and, you know, we kinda Carol did some digging in regards to what that office does. And, apparently, he missed a lot of meetings because he he does a lot of things he didn't realize, you know, that office is supposed to do. It just it was so funny to kinda go, you do that? The auditor office does that?
Carol Ventresca [:He says, yeah. We do. It was and he said when the decisions were made, the auditor must not have been in the room. For him. Exactly. Whoever didn't wanna do something, they just pushed it into the auditor's bailiwick because he's all over the plate. Mike Stanziano will give a shout out to Mike. But I love this point of what you're saying.
Carol Ventresca [:It is so true that we keep saying, is this oh, this person isn't qualified. This person isn't qualified. But the person we think may be qualified because we like them, we like their party, They may not be qualified either when you really look at the job description. That is a incredible Yeah. Insight. Thank you for for that.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Why we experimented with it was really because we have this Airstream going to college campuses. And what we know about college students and young voters is that they care about the world. They just don't always connect voting with the issues they care about.
Carol Ventresca [:Mhmm.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And so to the extent that we can talk about what, you know, the executive branch does versus the legislative branch or what county prosecutor does versus Congress, you know, these things can matter a lot, I think, to young people. So it was an experiment, and I think we're gonna continue to mess with that. Oh, I also have a sounds great. I was just gonna mention, we also have a textbook that we started in 1964, believe it or not, called Know Your Ohio Government. And it is available for free online through our partnership with WOSU, in both English and Spanish. It's plain language. Hopefully, we'll win on citizens, not politicians, and we'll have to update it in terms of what the redistricting process is. But it's another tool, for just trying to help folks understand how government works.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:A lot of our local leagues have something similar about their county level government Well, keep the made by volunteers.
Carol Ventresca [:Our frustration with government is often because we don't see things being fixed. But if we're asking the wrong person to fix it because that's not in their bailiwig, then they're frustrated, we're frustrated, and nothing gets done. Where if we had a better understanding and I have to qualify by saying, I did an internship in congress. I worked for the state of Ohio at one point in time. And when people say to me, well, you know, they just don't do this. They don't and and I'm like, you need to go and work for government and to see how to make things happen, because it will happen. Things will happen if we've got the right people in the right spot doing the right things. We we sort of touched on this, and that is that voting is a complex system.
Carol Ventresca [:They're not there are so many people on the issues or on the ballots. So many people, so many issues on the ballots. Becoming an educated voter is really hard. How does the league promote resources to help individuals learn about the issues and about the candidates as opposed to just being dependent on their sample ballot they get from their party office?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Well, we promote 2 kinds of education. So the first is really the logistics of voting, and I hope we'll get into that at some point. But the second is how to research those who are on your ballot and the issues that are on your ballot. And again, I would say vote411.org is an incredible resource. Online is kind of like a social media tool where every candidate gets their own login, and they answer the questions directly themselves. They upload their picture. Even if they called me and said, Jen, I have a grammatical error. Can you just fix that real quick? I can't do it.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:The idea is to be the conduit, between candidate and voter. Unfortunately, we do see that fewer and fewer candidates are responding to these questionnaires, not even just, not even just, through, the league, but across the board, and fewer candidates are doing forums. But we also run forums at the local level. We don't do debates where you get time to rebut, but we ask, the same or similar questions to candidates. Sometimes those forums are even more of a speed dating setup, which I really appreciate, where candidates are at different tables, and voters can go to different tables, ask questions of their candidates, and then keep circling around. Why? Because our hope is to simply be that, that conduit where voters and candidates can connect. But I certainly encourage everyone also to watch the sources they're using. Both mis- and disinformation are on the rise.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So misinformation is when we're just a little bit confused and we share wrong information. Disinformation is when someone is purposefully putting bad information out there. Bad actors are trying to confuse us or sow discord. And and so there's a lot of different ways to do that, but I think most importantly, let's have a a a well balanced media diet. Let's not get all of our information from one source. If we're getting stuff online, let's make let's look at those websites. Is that a real website? You know, for example, if it looks like it's a government website, does it say .gov at the end? Those kinds of things to really ask ourselves questions. You know? Similarly, sure, watch Fox News, but maybe also watch MSNBC, right? Or or watch CNN, but maybe also listen to NPR.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:All of these things are about trying to have a more complete media diet so that we aren't just in our own echo chambers. And we can really it can help us kind of see through both mis- and disinformation. But at the end of the day, if you have a question, you should ask. So especially if it's something about the voting process that you think might not be right, we want you to call the league or your board of elections so that you don't miss out on the process.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. I do have to say that the the q and a that you, you know, do the forums and print and put in print, my wife and I look at that. And and and, you know, we've made decisions based on answers that candidates just and it's not that they didn't answer the question, but they just didn't take the question seriously. They didn't answer it. You know, they're kinda dancing around. It's like, okay. You can't answer this simple question. What are you gonna do in office? You know? And the more that they answer, the better they answer.
Brett Johnson [:Regards to detail, what you ask them. It's not like you're asking, terrible questions. It's pretty much what your job is going to be. You you know, that's what just like you said, it just it amazes me those that don't answer, and it's blank. Or number 2, they just don't answer the question at all. And it's just it it to me, in my mind going, did you did can you not answer a question? Do do you not have the capacity to do this? Some of the things like, this doesn't look good. It's and it it can't take that long to do for them. Just just do it.
Brett Johnson [:Answer the question. Come on.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And they currently have a platform on all those issues that we ask about. They have a platform. Yeah. You know? It shouldn't be too hard to pull from that platform to
Brett Johnson [:answer.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Right? Right.
Carol Ventresca [:And and and a forum is going to give you a whole different perspective on their answer than what you see on advertising on television. I mean, we've got 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars of misinformation or disinformation floating past us every day.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Well and I think this is and I know we're gonna get to gerrymandering, but this is one of the reasons why gerrymandering we have to fight it. Because when lawmakers, especially lawmakers, when they know they can win their seat over and over again just by winning the primary, they don't go outside of their comfort zone
Brett Johnson [:Mhmm.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:To do candidate forums or to answer questionnaires, and that's a problem. And so when we have more legislative seats that sway back and forth based on public opinion because they were drawn fairly rather than to secure an advantage for one candidate over another candidate, We have we have more responsive candidates on the campaign trail. Right. They also then become more responsive lawmakers once they're in office. Right. Exactly.
Brett Johnson [:So, you know, in the past, Ohio has been known for its well run fair elections process. It's a little bit in question now. I mean, legislatures, are are making last minute changes on the heels of early voting. You know, elected officials promote misinformation as you, stated and and some distrust to justify their actions. Yeah. I I like what you talked about earlier putting the power in the voters' hands. So what should we expect? What should we do? What should we demand as a voter to to start cleaning this up? How can what can we do? You know, outside of voting somebody in or out. I mean, and that may be the answer.
Brett Johnson [:Maybe it is, but it's that, it just seems like everything's out of our power, and it just happening around where it's like, okay. This is it. This is what I got, you know, sort of thing. What what should we be demanding?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Yeah. So first off, let's think about, again, whose job it is. Right? So at the state level, it's the secretary of state. Right now, that's secretary LaRose. He is the chief elections officer. All 88 boards of elections get their directions on how to operate elections from him. Mhmm. The legislature makes a lot of laws about voting, but they're also listening to his feedback.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Maybe not always agreeing, but they at least listen to his feedback. So if you're worried about how elections work, I would say, look at the state legislature and look at the secretary of state. And know that there are watchdogs like myself who are in those hearings or having meetings with these folks about what voters need. And if something's happening on the ground where you are, I want to know that. Right? Like we pride ourselves in being the experts on how voters interact with electoral systems. But that only works if voters are telling us what's going on. Right? So when you have a problem or you have a concern, you know, join the league or call us. We also work with the nonpartisan election protection hotline, 866 hour vote, which is the largest.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:That's o u r v o t e. It's the largest nonpartisan national hotline league, NAACP, Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights. All these different groups, are on that. That's one piece. You know, come to hearings, send, emails. Also remember that our elections officials are our neighbors, and they're hardworking people. And, they have boards of elections meetings. You can go there.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And our members are often there at those boards of elections, but we could use some more volunteers to hit more counties. We hit well over 40, but not all 88, so that you can kinda hear what's going on in the ground or the kinds of things they need. Be a poll worker. You know, act at the end of the day, poll workers are the backbone of how our elections run. And their long hours, our poll workers skew older and, and and which is awesome because they have a lot of experience and know how, but sometimes they need young ones just to lift up the heavy box or or things like that, you know. And so it would it's a great opportunity, to see elections upfront and to and if you ever have any concerns about election security, you will see all of the detailed safeguards that are built into every part of the process. So those are just a few ideas.
Carol Ventresca [:Jen, I wanna I wanna get a specific question out here about this. You just mentioned about contacting you know, watch the legislators, secretary of state's office, and contacting them if you have a concern, contacting offices like yours. I have tried to contact some of these offices, and particularly at the US congressional level, these folks have cut off contacts. So we have a particular leg congressman in Ohio who does a really good job of being on his bully pulpit talking about all of his issues and all of his wants and his beliefs, but he refuses to take even an email from somebody who lives outside his district. They cut you off. They won't even let you in.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Well, I do get it. I mean, I do feel as though in a way, every congress member should care about the experience of Ohioans even if it's outside of their district lines.
Carol Ventresca [:Absolutely. Yeah.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:But before we even get there, they need to care about the experiences of the voters within their district lines, and I'm worried that they don't do that. And that's where the concept of gerrymandering comes in, which is that Ohio is one of the most gerrymandered in the country, and it's when politicians are able to rig those lines so that they and their friends know that they're gonna win over and over again. So what happens? As long as you win the primary, you win the general election. So you're playing to a very small minority of voters who show up in that district voting in that primary. So they play to party extremes, and they play to big pocketed donors. And so at the end of the day, they're not gonna go out on a limb to do something that their most extreme voters who vote in the primary or their donors who who fundraise, you know, who fund their campaigns. They're not gonna go out on a limb past those folks. And so if we want to have responsive lawmakers, step 1 is we need to have fair lines.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And, and I know we're gonna talk about citizens, not politicians, but what I would say to folks who live in a congressional district, that doesn't mean to give up. You should still raise your voice on the issue that matters. And one of the things that's most effective actually is going to that congressional district office. And and and, they really take note when someone shows up to a congressional district office and shares their concerns. But ultimately, we won't see a responsiveness of lawmakers until we see maps that are fair.
Carol Ventresca [:You had mentioned that, the league members tended to be either older or younger, which I think is phenomenal because it gives younger folks, excitement and energy and older folks opportunity to be good mentors.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:I'm I was very lucky that my parents were
Carol Ventresca [:absolutely committed to voting. The 1st year I was old enough to vote in the presidential election, I I was at school at Otterbein. My dad picked me up, took me back home to the voting booth, and then brought me back to campus so that I could vote in my 1st presidential election. And when I voted in that year, there had only been I think it was 10 or maybe 11 presidents that had actually received the female vote when I became old enough to vote. When my mother turned 18, there had only been 4 presidents that had received votes from women. So I I guess it's still in my head how important it is. You have a vote. You use that vote because it's so easy not to have that vote.
Carol Ventresca [:You you had mentioned one program called voter girl 2024, which is at my favorite place, the new STEM program at the Girl Scout Camp Conchocaty. What are the ways that we can get our young people involved, particularly college students, but also, younger kids too? But how do we make sure they have voting access and keep them going to the voting booth?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So in 2018, we actually did some focus groups with young voters, so 25 and under. And even though a lot has changed, all the research kinda still holds up what we found in those focus groups, which is that you can hold everything constant, you know, age, income level, education level, race, gender, military status. You can hold all those things constant. And the one difference as to whether a young person is a regular voter or not is if someone invested, like your dad, driving you down, getting you to the voting booth, and then getting you back. And you're a lifelong voter.
Carol Ventresca [:Right.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:You'd be surprised. I mean, we had kids who were on, you know, full rides to Denison who didn't realize you had to register to vote until it was too late. Right? So the most transformative thing we need to start with is just check on the young ones in your life. Make sure they know the ropes of voting because there's a lot of details. And Mhmm. And we don't want them to just get stuck on something. Because sometimes, you know, one of the one of the young people said to me, yeah. So I got off the bus.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:I went into the right polling location. I didn't realize I didn't have my ID. They said I was gonna have to do this provisional thing. I thought that was BS, and I left. So I didn't if if they would've known that they needed an ID Mhmm. And if they would've known, just cast that provisional ballot and then go back and bring your ID. Either one of those moments could have been an intervention because then the next thing they said was, and I haven't tried since. You know? And so I think, first and foremost, we need to check-in on all of our loved ones about the voting plans, especially because voting has changed a lot.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:There's a lot of new rules and regulations since the last presidential election. And so we need to revisit our voting plan every year, and we need to help others do so. Step 1, make sure your registration is right. Step 2, if you're voting on election day, check your polling locations because they move.
Carol Ventresca [:Right.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Right?
Carol Ventresca [:Right. Absolutely.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:If you're voting early or you're voting on election day, check the hours, check the address, make sure you have the proper ID, right, which is very specific now. We now have one of the strictest voter ID requirements in the country. So let's go through that real quick. So that is you have to have an Ohio, BMV issued driver's license or state ID. What's new, and I'm proud because our members actually got this added when this was getting passed. It's not perfect. But now for the first time, passport booker card counts, active duty military cards work, and US veteran IDs count. I think for your listeners, what's important to highlight here is that county veteran IDs no longer count, and that was one of the most primary you know, veterans often would use their county issued veteran ID.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:That no longer counts. They have to use the one from the US veteran affairs. By the way, it's only digital. So that's the only digital ID that is accepted at the polling location. I have heard lawmakers talk about how they were gonna fix that, and it just hasn't happened yet. And I hope someday it does happen. Yeah. When this was called 458 and it was passed in a lame duck, and when it was passing, interestingly enough, I had 140 of my volunteers down in Columbus for something we called lobby day or state house day, and we knew it was gonna pass.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And so we went in and we said, look. If I can fly to a war torn country with my passport, I should be able to vote with it. And so we were trying to nibble around the edges. Mhmm. At that time, my understanding was that county ID was like, county veterans IDs were counted. But what I would say is this is another thing. Like, hey, come join the league. If you're a veteran, please come join the league and help us explain to lawmakers why a county veteran ID should count.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:One piece of disinformation that is out there, or misinformation that's out there, is you just need that ID of those all those that count. It just needs to be unexpired. It does not have to have a current address. Oh. So, that is one piece. So, like, passports, books, and cards don't have an address at all. Your driver's license, you may move. Right? It doesn't matter if the address is correct.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:It just needs to be the name needs to be as it is on the rolls or very close to it, and it needs to be Ohio issued, ID from the BMV unexpired passport, obviously, from US government, military from that branch, or US veteran ID.
Brett Johnson [:Let's go back to poll workers. I'm to me, I'm amazed. I just I didn't realize up until the last few cycles. I have friends that, volunteer, you know, that that day and just how much goes into it, and it's long, long day, but they love it. They they you know, every year, they're they're doing it. But but, you know, recently, you know, dealing with threats or at least we now know that poll workers are feeling threats. Maybe it was happened before. I don't know, but now it it it's being known.
Brett Johnson [:Do we need to put more resources into the election process ensuring that not only the safety of the workers is there, but also maybe the safety of the infrastructure and the IT systems? How are how does the League of Women Voters see that part of it as well?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Okay. So, of course, it would be great to have more, resources. Financial resources for boards of elections would be great. They will put it to good use, whether it's new machines or new software or more staff or better ADA compliance, whatever it is. So, of course, we support funding for boards of elections from the county level, state level, or federal level. In terms of security of our elections, actually, our elections are incredibly secure and trustworthy. And step 1 is making sure that we all remember that, that we remember that elections officials and poll workers are our neighbors, they are community servants, that every board of elections and every polling location is run by equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, that nothing is done without oversight of 2. So for example, the machines are stored in a room that has a Republican key and a Democratic key.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Right? The tally system takes a Republican login and a Democratic login. The drop box has to be emptied by 1 Republican, 1 Democrat. There's security throughout the process. And I think if we wanna bring the temperature down, we have to fill any sort of vacuum in terms of what people understand about elections. We have to fill that vacuum with good information. In terms of poll workers, we haven't seen poll work threats to poll workers themselves here in Ohio, though the temperature and rhetoric around elections in general is nasty in a way that it hasn't been before. One of the things we do is when we get calls, especially into our hotline, 866 hour vote, o u r v o t e, that's about kind of ill behaved humans outside of polling locations or early vote centers, we dispatch what are called peacekeepers, and those are and these are all volunteers. They are faith leaders, social workers, lawyers, and others who are trained in de escalation, and the idea being to just bring the temperature down.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And that seems to help a lot. But there's so many other ways, right, to bring the temperature down. One of the things we do right now is, in a week or 2, we will do, a program on how elections are secure for the public, and I'll make sure you all know about it. And then we're gonna encourage everyone to write a letter to the editor thanking their boards of elections and their poll workers. Because it's harder to distrust the system when you realize that these are these folks are our neighbors. Right? They're they're community members, and they're equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats running our election system. I mean, another tip for any of your listeners who have, language proficiency, when they sign up to be a poll worker, they could ask the board of elections if there are certain polling locations where voters who speak that language are more likely to go. Because I think that can be particularly helpful.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Sure. And just a very cool form of service. You know, we have a lot of our citizens who, who pass the citizenship test, which means they have reading ability, but they might still feel more comfortable communicating, and have a better understanding, in their mother tongue. And so if someone is fluent in Arabic or or Spanish or even just conversationally capable. They could Yeah. They could offer that to their board of elections, and they call to be a poll worker.
Brett Johnson [:So if you're a voter that has that, need for translation or just help with the English language, put it that way, how does a voter go up and and ask for that?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Well, any voter can ask for help.
Brett Johnson [:Okay. They just go up and say, I I do you have somebody that can help me or however they can say it? Yeah. It's sort of thing. Okay.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Yeah. Okay. Any voter can ask for help. And there's 2 things you can do. 1 is you can ask someone to come into the voting booth that you trust, or maybe you wanna get an absentee ballot at your home so that you can fill it out. You know? And if there's someone there who can help you read it, you know, better just to make sure you understand it, those things are fine. But any voter can ask for help from, workers.
Carol Ventresca [:Can you bring somebody with you to help you? Yes.
Brett Johnson [:Okay. Okay.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:The only That's
Carol Ventresca [:good to know.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:The only folks you can't bring to help you into the booth are if they are your employer, an agent of your union, or a candidate on your ballot. Those folks you shouldn't bring in, but otherwise, you can bring in any helper you want.
Brett Johnson [:Mhmm. And does the helper then need to bring an ID?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:They shouldn't. Okay. If if they get asked for IDs, then, they should call 866 hour vote.
Brett Johnson [:Okay. Okay.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Sounds good. Because they're not voting. They're just voting. So you can think about, like, maybe grandma wants to still vote in person, but her eyes are failing. And she's just a little bit nervous about seeing everything.
Brett Johnson [:Mhmm.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:You know? Or someone's doing it for the first time, you know, and they're nervous. You know? And so they want mom to come with them. The they are allowed to ask for the helper of their choice, or you can ask for you can even ask for a republican and democrat poll worker to sit with you at your machine to assist you at the same time.
Carol Ventresca [:Jen, we wanna make sure that all our audience knows all of the ins and outs of the logistics of voting. So why don't you give us a little overview of that?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So one thing you can do is you can Google make a voting plan League of Women Voters of Ohio, and some information will pop up. You can also if you have questions, you can go to voteohio.gov, which is the, site for the secretary of state, or you can call or go to the, website of your board of elections. But what I'll say is let's let's talk through the different ways. If you're early voting at your one county early vote center, you now need a photo ID. In the past, you could use the last four of your social when you went to vote in person at the early vote center. You now need one of those IDs we already talked about. The other thing is the hours change weekly, and that last week of early vote, they change almost daily. So before you leave your house, check and make sure the early vote center is open.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Okay? If you're voting absentee or by mail, the number one thing to do is not to delay on any piece of the process. So voting by mail is incredibly secure. You have to prove your identity twice. It's the only way of voting you have to prove your identity twice. 1st to, request your ballot and then to have your ballot count. And so but requesting your ballot is something that you cannot do online. You can get the form online, but you have to print it out, fill it in, and get it to your board of elections. Also, libraries, of course, the board of elections.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:There can be other places that have the absentee ballot request form. But especially if you're gonna use the mail system to mail it back, you're gonna add some days there. Right? Then they're gonna mail the ballot to you. That's gonna add some days, and then you have to return it. So there's some there's some tips here that can help. The first is, follow the instructions on the absentee ballot request form completely. Make sure you fill out the entire thing. There's stuff highlighted in yellow.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:That's all required. What's not highlighted in yellow, but is recommended is that you fill in your email address and phone number. Why? Because if they have a problem or question about your application and all they have is your mailing address, they have to mail that to you rather than picking up the phone or emailing you, which is much more efficient, to get that fixed. Do not delay. Do that immediately. If you plan on doing that, do that today. Okay? Because you just like, the thing about the absentee process is it's incredibly convenient, but it does take longer. So don't delay on it.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:The next thing, when you get your ballot, make sure you read all of the instructions. Okay? It'll tell you how many stamps you need. Don't listen to some meme on the website because you can live in the same county with someone else and have a different length of ballot, and they might not give you the right stamps numbers. Right? It'll tell you how many stamps you need. It'll tell you where you need to sign. It'll tell you what envelope does what. Right? It'll tell you all those things. Follow all of those instructions.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And then again, don't delay in returning it. If you're gonna put it in the mail, walk it into your post office. Why? Because not every piece of mail is postmarked. Right. And if it comes after election day, there's a time where it can there's a few days after election day that ballots can still come in and be counted as long as they're postmarked in time. Okay? Right. So you need to walk it into your post office and say, please postmark this. Right? Or get it to the county drop box.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Remember that there's a new rule now that if you are returning the ballot for someone else, you can't use that 247 drop box. You actually have to walk into the board of elections when it's open and fill out some paperwork. And so all aspects of this take time. And finally, if you go to voteohio.gov, you can actually track your absentee ballot, and I find that particularly helpful because it'll help you know I mean, the boards of elections are processing a lot of stuff. So it'll help you know, you know, did they get your request? Did they approve your request? Is it in the mail to you? You know, all of those things. So that's a surefire way to make that work. If you're voting on election day, make sure you check your polling location because it changes. Again, make sure you have your proper ID.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:If you're voting in person and you vote provisionally, that can happen at the early vote center or on election day. You may get instructions from the poll worker. Don't throw those away. Read them because that will help you know how to make sure your ballot counts. There are different reasons to get a provisional ballot. Sometimes it's just didn't bring the right ID, and you'll have to go back to the board of elections. You only have a few days to do it. Go back to the board of elections and and provide your proper ID.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Sometimes, it's something like you requested an absentee ballot. Maybe it didn't come, so now you're going to vote in person. You're gonna get a provisional ballot so that you as a voter only cast 1 ballot. Only 1 ballot counts. And so if you get a provisional ballot, the answer is not to not vote. The answer is to find out why you're getting it and then do whatever you need to do to make sure it counts. Hopefully, that helps a little bit. But the bottom line is just remember that boards of elections have a lot of rules because this is about safety and security, and so there's safeguards built throughout the entire process.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:But they want to help you vote, and so call them or call the league or call our hotline, 866, our vote, and and we will help you get through the process and the problems that you're having.
Carol Ventresca [:I I have done I did, absentee ballots in Delaware County for many years, and I have to give a shout out to the folks at the board of elections in our county. They have done a phenomenal job and are always incredibly helpful and go out of their way. So, if people are concerned about the security of the system, then don't complain about all the rules. The rules are there to make it secure. But also, there are lots and lots of people who really do wanna help you vote. So just hang in there, stick with it, follow the information, and you're you're good to go. So, Jen, let's go ahead and then just jump right into issue 1. Now it just happened that, I had already prepared our list of questions, and then your the the lead came out with a phenomenal report called Ohio's congressional districts, Disparities, Division, and Disadvantages.
Carol Ventresca [:So I changed my question a little bit. It's still bottom line is the group, Citizens Not Politicians, brought gerrymandering to the voters and collected over 700,000 signatures from every county in Ohio, which I think was twice the number they had to have. It's on the ballot as issue 1. There have been incredible escapades happening to convince people to vote no on issue 1. We wanna hear from the leak. What is issue 1? Why is it there? Why is it important that we vote yes?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Alright. So let's walk through a couple things. So first off, I just wanna mention that we had, along with our friends at Common Cause, 3,000 volunteers in the field collecting signatures. Yes. Yes. More like, at least a quarter of those that we turned in to the secretary of state were from volunteers. And so I'm very, very proud of that. Another thing I wanna mention about our history, because I think our history speaks for itself, and I think it helps inoculate against some of the disinformation.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:The first time the league actually in Ohio had a ballot issue to end gerrymandering was in 1981, and it was endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party and opposed by the Ohio Democratic Party. Mhmm. Why is that? Because whatever party is in control wants to keep the system as is. Right. And so what we know to be true is that both parties do this. Right? It's only human nature that if you are part of the political infrastructure of a party, if you are an elected official, and you have any influence over drawing district lines, you want to use that influence to make sure you and your friends get elected over and over again. And so the league also has been in lawsuits, where we have litigated against maps or districts that have been rigged for Democrats as well as rigged for Republicans. Our north star are voters.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And I am proud to say that we helped write this language. I'm proud to say that our volunteers are the ones that got it through the AG process, which is the first part. And that is because this truly does end gerrymandering, which is rigging maps so that your party wins over and over again. Gerrymandering hurts every voter in the state of Ohio. We already talked about this. If you know you're gonna win your seat over and over again, you don't have to listen to the people that you represent. And in fact, what we see, and I've seen this in the state house for over 20 years now, that when a state is so extremely gerrymandered like Ohio, and Ohio's one of the worst in the country, a lawmaker who crosses the aisle to work on a common sense policy solution almost always loses their primary. Right.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So gerrymandering is fueling extremes. It is breaking down any ability to have common sense bipartisan solutions to the issues that affect us. The Ohio State House in Congress affect every aspect of our daily lives. And so that's why issue 1, citizens, not politicians, the solution is in the name. If politicians are always gonna politician, if they're always gonna rig the maps for their favor, let us take them out of the equation. And so citizens, not politicians, bans politicians, lobbyists, party leaders, and their spouses, all of whom have a personal interest in being able to draw these lines. The next thing that I think is super important is never in our history in Ohio have we had a balanced commission. So as we talk about the party balance of boards of elections, which is one of the things that I make think makes our elections so secure, we've never had party balance in how we draw maps.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So right now, the redistricting commission is 5 Republicans, 2 Democrats. The way that the governor's race goes is the way the rest of the statewide races go. 3 of those commissioners are statewide races. Right? So it could flip the other way. At some point, the demo you could have a democrat, 3 statewide democrats, and so then you have 5 democrats, 2 republicans. This is not helpful. Right? Citizens, not politicians. There's 5 Republicans, 5 Democrats, 5 Independents.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And I particularly love the 5 Independents because we've never had a voice for independence in the redistricting process, and more Ohioans consider themselves independent than member of either party. So the third and most important thing, and I think this is also as important as the other 2, is that nothing will be done behind closed doors. The maps that we are living under right now, not only have they been struck down 7 times by the Ohio Supreme Court, they were all made behind closed doors. And I can tell you, because I watched them be made behind closed doors, which might not make sense, but there is an room right off the hearing room, and commissioners were circling around. They could only have so many commissioners in the room at the same time without, you know, breaking kind of open meeting laws, and and you could even question as to whether they did or not. And so you'd have one in there, and one would circle in, and then another would circle in. And they kept doing this round robin concept. And the media and nonpartisan groups like myself are sitting there waiting for the hearings to start, sitting there waiting to have the conversations about what these maps look like.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:They were made behind closed doors. So, finally, we will also have a commission that every aspect of the process will have to be done in the public view. So ban politicians, lobbyists, and party leaders who have self interest for making the maps. 2, have party balance of 5 Republican, 5 Democrat, 5 independent citizens of Ohio making the map, and everything that they do requires at least 2 votes of each of those party affiliations and a total of 9 total, so you can make it up in a couple different ways. And 3, full transparency. The reason why we did this report is because we all and we do reports on redistricting all the time. But we want people to see how our communities are already sliced and diced. And the only reason our districts look the way they do is so that certain politicians can win all the time.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And so that's why we we did that report that you're talking about.
Carol Ventresca [:There there was a oh, there was an article that was published in one of the Ohio papers in the last couple of days that showed an example of one of the gerrymandered districts and literally a house on a street was part of 1 district, and everybody else on that street was part of another district. It it's to that level of pulling out votes into different districts to make it acceptable for for those folks. Let me also just add in. When you mentioned that there were previous statewide ballots to get rid of gerrymandering, and Ohioans overwhelmingly voted for those. That's true. And now one of the commercials against issue 1 says, we've already taken care of this. Like, big people need to hear that that the big part of this so the difference is, yeah, we voted against gerrymandering in the in the past, but now we are actually creating a fair process to keep from having gerrymandered districts.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And let let me be clear. Our ballot initiative, the league's ballot initiative in 1981 failed. It was endorsed by the Republicans opposed by the Democrats. Our initiative in 2005 and 2012 failed. We decided to work with the legislature in 2015 and 2018, which are the standards. We endorsed those. We didn't think they were perfect. We endorsed those because we wanted to bring reform to the people of Ohio.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Our hope was because the Republican Party and the Democratic Party endorsed, the better angels would prevail in the mapping process. And that did not happen. The commission, you know, has 4 legislative members on it. The legislature created the standards and the process that we have today that the voters voted on in 2015 and 2018. They ignored those standards. The other thing the legislature did within those ballot initiatives, within those amendments, it named the Ohio Supreme Court the the, authority that would judge maps for fairness. And then they ignored that 7 times. Right.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:The point is that we tried to play ball with the politicians in 2015 and 2018, but they proved that they won't even abide by the standards they wrote. So they have to be taken out of the equation, and that's why we ask for a yes on 1.
Brett Johnson [:How do you, after, let's say it does pass that that it changes? How how what's the game plan on monitoring the success of it over the years to come? Is it the same, monitoring you've been doing so far looking backwards, or is it some modifications on, you know, proving, like, this is working. Look at this. Look at you know, how do you go about doing that?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Well, this is one of the fun things about League is that we are the watchdogs. So we've been in the room every time maps have been made. You know? Well, not made. We've been in the hearings where maps have been adopted. They they've always been made behind closed doors, but we'll be in the room again. We have right now about a 150 volunteers who are teaching folks about citizens, not politicians through a volunteer speakers bureau. What we will do that speakers bureau existed actually during the mapping process in 2021. We will then teach these people about the implementation process so that they can go out to church groups and rotary clubs and and civic organizations and wherever they can and teach people about the implementation so that they can participate.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So step 1 will be encouraging folks from all over the state to apply. And so there will be so many folks who can apply. While it can't be politicians and party leaders or their spouses or lobbyists, it can be, firefighters and teachers and retired professors and senior citizens and college students from all over the state. So first step will be explaining who's eligible and encouraging them to apply. Then we will watch the selection process. The entire selection process will be done in public view. We'll watch that. If there's anything that's not working well there, we will go to the media.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:We will be the voice of the people on that. Next, the commission is supposed to listen to people in terms of how they want the maps to look. And so we will teach people how to, use free mapping software to create their own district plans or their own communities of interest and submit them. We will teach people how to testify. We will teach people how to, analyze proposed maps and make comments. You know, maybe they'll say, we don't think Grandview and Upper Arlington should be split, or we don't think Troutwood and Dayton should be split. We think all of Massillon should be kept whole. These are the kinds of things.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:We'll teach them how to give very valuable feedback to the commission that will then be used to draw those final district plans. And it's gonna be a lot of fun. It's gonna start immediately because we have to make this commission and make the maps all next year in 2025 so that we have fair district lines before the 2026 election cycle. But here's what I gotta tell you. The reason why they took so long the last time is because they were trying so hard looking house by house by house, determining how people vote so that they could make sure that they and their friends could win over and over again. It's actually not nearly as hard when you're just trying to make fair maps.
Brett Johnson [:Right. Right. And and I asked that question just so there is follow it's not a set it and and forget it. It's that no. It moving forward, we're going to prove to you this was the a better way to go. May not be perfect again, but it's a better way to go. There's nothing perfect in this world. Nothing.
Brett Johnson [:It's just a better way to do it. Yeah.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Well and and in that, like, one of the most common questions we get, which I think is a reasonable one is why can't computers just do this? And here's the reality. There's a couple things. One is a computer doesn't know the difference between how how different Grandview is from Delaware County than it is similar to upper Arlington. So there's some of that, but there's also the fact that who runs the computer, who makes the algorithm. Right? Right. And so you're right. There's no perfect system. And that's why taking out the self interest by banning politicians and lobbyists and party leaders is really step 1.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And and that's why we're really excited, and that's why we're asking everyone to not get duped by the rhetoric and to vote yes. Yeah.
Carol Ventresca [:And and don't get duped by the language on your ballot.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Yeah. That's a good point.
Carol Ventresca [:That's One
League of Women Voters Ohio [:of the questions that we get sometimes is why read that language on the ballot, and that sounds terrible. It does sound terrible. The good news is that has nothing to do with the amendment. Right. You know, let's talk about who drafted this. And I was honored to be kind of on the forefront working with, chief justice Maureen O'Connor on this, whose former, Republican chief justice Maureen O'Connor. No woman has served in Ohio office longer than her. Her her conservative credentials are are truly there.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:But she also brought in Yvette McGee Brown, who's a Democrat who was formerly on the Supreme Court. She listened to experts at, various Ohio based universities. It's been endorsed by, you know, teachers' unions, nurses' unions, the steel workers, NAACP, the Ohio Council of Churches, which includes everything from Baptists to Presbyterians and Lutherans. It's been endorsed by wide ranges of faiths, the Libertarian party, so many others. And this is why we encourage you to not only vote yes on issue 1, but to check-in with your loved ones to make sure they are too.
Brett Johnson [:Switching subjects, and and this is gonna be one of our final questions, but it's important to talk about dark money. Yep. It's become an enormous issue. Whether we understand it, how did it even become, but it is a thing now. We see 1,000,000 of dollars of, spent on TV and social media advertising. Thank goodness I tap out. I don't even watch TV now whether it comes in this bid, still sneaks in. How do we get this negative genie back in the bottle? I mean, again, that voter power.
Brett Johnson [:How do we get this stopped?
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Yep. So first off, the league is, of course, opposed to dark money, and the first thing that we would love is if every voter could follow the money. If when that ad was on the screen, it would tell us not what shadowy pack funded it, but who their funders are. Right? So thinking about, you know, if it's a a prescription drug, ballot amendment, and you can see, oh, wait. It's supposed to reduce, you know, prices, but farm big pharma's behind it. Things like that. If we can follow the money, then that should help us be more informed voters. A lot of this started with Citizens United, and which was, you know, a federal Supreme Court case that said corporations are people, and that money is free speech.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:But one of the things in there was not only did they open that up for corporations to give, basically, unlimited amounts of money, They've called on states to increase their transparency, and Ohio didn't change their transparency at all. And I can tell you my dear friend, Catherine, at Common Cause, predecessors at the league and myself have all gone to the secretary of state and to the legislature begging for more transparency in this process. I believe that we need to have a more responsive state legislature by ending gerrymandering through a yes on one before we can really handle campaign finance violations and and and and campaign fine dark money. I would expect when, we win in citizens, not politicians, that we could get some really bad legislation or extreme legislation, I guess I should say extreme legislation, out of the general assembly. But then after that, we're gonna have a more fair general assembly. It's gonna lean more Republican, but they're not gonna have this unearned super majority where they can override a veto from the governor. Right? And they're gonna have to play to voters. And I think this will allow us to really start to promote some very common sense policy solutions on on things like campaign finance or elections operations, but also maybe education or or social policies, health care.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Because I can tell you back when we used to have swing districts in the Ohio State House, the smartest lawmakers were the ones in those districts because they had to find the sweet spot where they had to find that compromise for those difficult policies. If we have more of those folks, we will get smarter policies out of the state house, I believe.
Carol Ventresca [:And and, again, going back to some earlier comments we made, if we actually have a legislature that is truly working for everybody, therefore compromising and coming up with sensible legislation, people will be more engaged, more willing to be supportive of the legislature, and be willing to, continue to be involved and voting. I mean, it's going to make things better, not worse if we can get this through. So
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Yeah. Phenomenal. Let me let me jump in there really quickly. So research has shown that gerrymandering, again, politicians being able to rig lines so they went over and over again, It certainly makes policy making less responsive. Right. Right? It makes lawmakers less responsive because, again, they have to play to their party extremes in the primary and their big pocketed donors. But it also decreases voter satisfaction and voter participation. Yeah.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:And so you are right that by ending gerrymandering, we actually improve several aspects of our electoral system at once, And that's what we're really excited about.
Carol Ventresca [:It it also reduces the amount of things that actually happen. I mean, they are saying that the last this legislature and the last legislature had the least amount of true policymaking happen, because they were out on their limbs doing the extremes, and somehow it would all fall apart. Jennifer, thank you so much for being with us. We always ask our guests for their last words of wisdom. If you have some resources you wanna make sure that our our listeners know about, we want them to have a great voting experience. Let's tell them how to make it a good, good example.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:Yeah. So elections are stressful. We're in this incredibly tense time of of partisan divide, and and I would absolutely argue that both dark money and gerrymandering are part of that. It can feel like you just wanna bury your head in the sand, but that's not the answer. Democracy is a participatory sport. The answer is become a poll worker, check down your loved ones, and make sure that they have what they need to vote. Do your research. And so vote411.org is our nonpartisan neutral voter guide.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:So if you wanna learn about issue 1, it has pros and cons in there. It doesn't tell you, our our opinion. Also, lwvohio.org is a great website full of all kinds of logistical information. The secretary of state's website, vote ohio.gov, is particularly helpful. Any sort of questions, problems, concerns, you can call, text, or Google 866 hour vote. But at the end of the day, I just wanna remind everyone that this is our democracy, and this is our Ohio. And the only way that we get to a point where democracy can even be maybe a little bit boring again, which is never boring to nerds like me, But it let's get to a point where it's less stressful than it is today, is if we're all leaning in.
Carol Ventresca [:Mhmm.
League of Women Voters Ohio [:You know, this is our system, and we can work it, and we ask everyone to join us. And in this nonpartisan movement, to make sure that democracy works for everyone.
Brett Johnson [:Well, many thanks to our expert guest, Jen Miller, executive director, League of Women Voters of Ohio, for joining us today. Listeners, thank you for joining us as well. You're gonna find contact information and the resources we discussed in this podcast on our website, looking forward our way.com, as well as the cast on our website, looking forward our way.com, as well as the show notes as well too. We're looking forward to hearing your feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes.
