Democrats boycott vote to forward revised election-law plan

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051208/NEWS09/512080429

Article published Thursday, December 8, 2005

Republicans expected to send bill to Senate

COLUMBUS - The battle of ballot issues next year could be affected by a massive election-law rewrite sent last night to the full Senate solely with votes from the panel's Republican majority.

Democratic members of the Senate Rules Committee decided to boycott the vote.

"They haven't worked with us at all," said Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo). "We started out with a 200-page bill. It's now 400 pages, and we have had less than 24 hours. And they're not dealing with what's really wrong with Ohio's elections."

Under an amendment before the committee, the attorney general would join the secretary of state as the only statewide elected officials prohibited from serving as treasurer or some other official capacity for ballot-issue campaigns...

an Action Alert? We all need to be writing our State Senators NOW to urge them to oppose HB 3. Here's an article from The Free Press detailing what it's about:

With New Legislation, Ohio Republicans Plan Holiday Burial for American Democracy
By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
The Free Press

Tuesday 06 December 2005

A law that will make democracy all but moot in Ohio is about to pass the state legislature and to be signed by its Republican governor. Despite massive corruption scandals besieging the Ohio GOP, any hope that the Democratic party could win this most crucial swing state in future presidential elections, or carry its pivotal US Senate seat in 2006, are about to end... Cont.

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1607


Look up your State Senators and Reps Here:

http://www.senate.state.oh.us/senators/

http://www.house.state.oh.us/jsps/Representatives.jsp


Not that I think this is a great letter, but just to encourage people to write, this is the letter I sent to my Senator and Rep:

Dear __________________

I'm writing to urge you to oppose HB 3

As a very concerned citizen in your district I hope you will consider the damage this bill will do.

If this bill passes, the increased voter disenfranchisement, the dangers of privately run elections and the unconstitutionality of denying the right to challenge election results takes away what little power "we the people" actually have in government.

Students, the elderly, youth and recently moved families will not be able to vote without a government issued ID card - why would we want to DISCOURAGE people rather than ENCOURAGE people to participate in our democracy?

Making it harder for organizations to register new voters by making the process slow and expensive punishes citizens and again takes away what little power we have in government.

The GAO Report released Oct. 2005, finally shows what many of us have long known - that the electronic vote tabulators are NOT secure and are easily manipulated. Why on earth are our votes counted in secret? I don't think anyone can explain that and none of our "leaders" talk about it. Combine that with this bill taking away the right to challenge elections, and it barely makes any sense to go out and vote anymore... I don't know - perhaps this is the plan?

From the GAO Report: "Concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes."


I trust that with your intelligence and your desire to do what is right for the common good, you will realize that HB 3 is the exact opposite of what needs to be done to encourage people to participate in our democracy and leads us down the road to losing the very freedoms and rights that have made this the greatest country in the world.

Please oppose HB 3 and work to restore confidence and participation in our democracy.

Sincerely,