Kasich vetoes GOP-backed election polls bill

June 18, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

COLUMBUS

Gov. John Kasich has vetoed Republican-backed legislation requiring voters to post bond when seeking court intervention to keep polling places open late on election days.

In a veto message Friday, the governor voiced support for lawmakers attempts to address the process, but he said SB 296 went too far.

“I agree that there is a need to create a uniform process for the common pleas judges in all 88 counties to follow when they may be considering requests to keep polling places open after 7:30 p.m. due to some extraordinary circumstance,” Kasich wrote. “I also believe that the process this bill would create is sound and would prevent frivolous injunction requests from being granted. I look forward to working with the general assembly in the future to see this process become law. The bill’s provision that eliminates the judicial discretion to waive the bond is a step too far, however, and should not become law.”

The veto was Kasich’s second since taking office more than five years ago. The first, back in 2011, dealt with the withdrawals from Lake Erie; lawmakers came back and reworked that legislation bill, gaining Kasich’s support a year later.

The governor has used his line-item veto authority to strike provisions from spending bills.

SB 296 passed the Ohio House and Senate on split votes, with Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing. Republicans hold super majorities in in the legislature and could move to override Kasich’s veto. They’d need support from three-fifths of the members in the chambers — 60 in the House and 22 in the Senate.

Lawmakers are on their pre-election summer recess. The Ohio House has no scheduled voting sessions until mid-November.

Sen. Bill Seitz, a Republican from Cincinnati, the primary sponsor of the measure, criticized the governor’s action Friday, saying that Kasich had “subordinated the interests of Ohio taxpayers and poll workers to the interests of those who want to game Election Day voting hours for political purposes.”

But Democrats immediately applauded the veto, saying the legislation amounted to a poll tax.

“I am so pleased that the governor heeded the warning of the voting-rights community and Democratic lawmakers and vetoed Senate Bill 296,” said Rep. Kathleen Clyde, Democrat from Kent. “Today’s veto stops a harmful bill that would have acted as a poll tax on the most vulnerable Ohioans. Emergencies happen and our officials need the ability to respond to ensure access to the polls.”

Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said in a released statement that he respected the governor’s decision.