Saturday, March 31, 2012
COLUMBUS
Politicians could make it a lot easier for Ohioans to participate in elections, if they weren’t so busy coming up with implausible narratives to divert attention from their underlying political maneuvering.
Instead, the ongoing debate over House Bill 194 has turned into grand theater, with Republicans and Democrats claiming that they are acting in Ohioans’ best interests, all the while trying to get voters to disregard the obvious political implications of their timing.
Take Republicans, who passed the bill in the first place. Even House Speaker Bill Batchelder will tell you that he had problems with the final version of the legislation, which came to the chamber at the last minute, without adequate time for lawmakers to make sure the language was in proper order.
GOP members stood firm in the need for the law changes, saying Ohio had to make sure that its elections were free from fraud, real or perceived.
They maintained that stance for months, even as opponents began collecting signatures to place the bill before voters.
Technical amendment
They even came back later and passed a separate bill with a technical amendment that effectively reduced the number of days for early in-person voting, regardless of the outcome of the referendum.
But last week, Republican members of the Ohio Senate moved a bill to fully repeal House Bill 194, saying the legislation has caused too much confusion.
They now want to hit the reset button and work with their Democratic colleagues on a bill that everyone will support.
And they say it has nothing to do with the November election and the potential for the issue to drive voters to the polls to support Barack Obama’s reelection.
There’s plenty of blame for Democrats in this mess, too.
They launched a successful petition drive, gathering more than 300,000 valid signatures from like-minded Ohioans who want House Bill 194 repealed.
They’ve spent months telling the general public how the election changes will make it harder for the elderly, minority and low-income voters to cast ballots.
They’ve demanded that it be struck from the law books.
Now that the Republicans want to give them what they want, the minority party is weaving a ludicrous argument that preemptively repealing House Bill 194 would somehow thwart the will of the people.
Think about that for a minute: They’re trying to convince the general populace, using loaded words like “manipulation” and “disenfranchise,” that it’s unconstitutional for lawmakers to repeal a law that a big group of Ohioans want repealed.
Listening to people from either side of the political aisle try to justify their actions is a hoot, with lots of grandiose rhetoric that does little to deal with the underlying barriers in election laws that make it harder for people to vote.
If lawmakers are really serious about easing the path to the ballot box, they’ll stop the grandstanding.
Republicans should stand up, admit that House Bill 194 is a train wreck, thank the backers of the referendum from stopping it from taking effect and repeal the whole thing now — including restoring those final three days of early in-person voting that they slipped into state law.
Democrats should stand up, accept the GOP apology, realize their position as the minority in state government and try to work with Republicans on a new bill that will benefit Ohio voters and thwart election fraud.
And both sides should stop pretending that all of this is not connected to the November presidential election.
Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.