Bid to repeal voting law irks leader

Secretary of State Jon Husted says people would misuse the law for political ends to try to confuse voters about election rules. Enlarge

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio Senate president Thursday bristled at Secretary of State Jon Husted's suggestion that lawmakers should repeal a new law overhauling the election process and start anew despite the fact that the law is headed for a November voter referendum.

"Just because the secretary of state called for it, doesn't mean we're going to jump to do it," an obviously perturbed Senate President Tom Niehaus (R., New Richmond) said.

House Speaker Bill Batchelder (R., Medina) questioned whether it would be constitutional for the General Assembly to repeal a law on its own after it's already been certified for the ballot.

Mr. Husted said he was open to other ideas but said the simplest avenue to stability for this year's election appears to be repealing House Bill 194 and starting over, even though the law contains some provisions he championed as Ohio's top elections official.

"If you repeal something, there is no need for a referendum," he said at a forum hosted by the Associated Press. "It's not the appearance on the ballot that bothers me. It's the campaign surrounding it. It's likely to be misused by people for their own political ends to confuse voters about what the rules are for the election.

"Let's let common sense prevail here," Mr. Husted said.

Among its numerous provisions, the law would shorten the pre-election windows for absentee and early voting, restrict the days and hours that county boards of election could be open for in-person early voting, and attempt to put all counties on the same page when it came to counting last-resort provisional ballots.

It would prohibit county election boards from mass-mailing applications for absentee ballots to all registered voters.

Supporters of the law argued that it would provide a uniform system in which voters across the state would be treated the same and save counties money. Opponents contended that the law throws up too many obstacles to voting and increases the chances a vote won't be counted.

Attorney General Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican who serves as lawyer for state officials, said he knows of nothing preventing a legislative repeal of House Bill 194.

"I don't know why they couldn't," he said. "It's a law. You can repeal a law."

The usually even-tempered Mr. Niehaus was clearly agitated by what he characterized as Mr. Husted's "epiphany," which took place at a county elections official conference a day earlier. The Republican legislative leader said members of the Senate had been in discussions for weeks with Mr. Husted's office on the topic and awaited a response when Mr. Husted suddenly made the statement.

"We had heard nothing," he said. "And so I was quite surprised to read a press release yesterday afternoon announcing that the secretary had decided that we should repeal it when he had been silent with his colleagues in the legislature for weeks on this very issue."

Sen. Eric Kearney (D., Cincinnati), who is expected to be elected minority leader by his fellow Senate Democrats next week, opposed a legislative repeal at this stage of House Bill 194, although he opposes the law.

"The process is in place, and the people have to decide how they want to vote," he said.

House Bill 194 was passed solely with Republican votes last spring and signed into law by Gov. John Kasich. The Fair Elections Coalition led by Mr. Husted's Democratic predecessor, Jennifer Brunner, and backed by President Obama's campaign collected enough valid signatures from registered voters to put the law on the ballot. The law has been on hold pending the outcome of the referendum vote and will not affect this year's presidential election.

"We will support any and all measures that will ensure that HB 194 never becomes the law of the land in Ohio," said Fair Elections Ohio's campaign director, Greg Moore. "Fair Elections Ohio and our broad-based coalition will continue our work to build a strong grass-roots statewide campaign that will ensure that HB 194 is defeated at the polls this fall. We hope the secretary, the legislature, and the governor will all take this opportunity to expand and not suppress the voting rights of any Ohio voter."

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.