State Senator Turner,County Executive FitzGerald,Community Leaders Call on Board of Elections and Husted to Reconsider Vote

State Senator Nina Turner on CNN 

Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, State Senator Nina Turner (D-Cleveland), and community leaders gathered at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections today to call upon Secretary of State Jon Husted and the Board of Elections to offer voters greater access to the polls this fall.

“Voting opportunities should be as broad as possible.  It comes down to a common sense question – do you believe in providing fair and complete access to voters, or do you have another agenda?  And when elections officials – the very leaders who should be supporting maximum access to voting – are trying to restrict access, you make it very easy for citizens to lose faith in the overall process,” said County Executive FitzGerald.

A recent tie vote by the four-member Board of Elections on how to best manage extended early voting hours leading up to the November 6 election prompted a ruling by Husted to limit availability to the board’s regular business hours. This follows the trend in other larger urban counties across Ohio in which Husted has sought to limit early voting access on the heels of undecided boards of elections.

“Public officials have a moral responsibility and a legal duty to promote voting and voter access,” said Senator Turner. “Secretary of State Husted has ignored this obligation and created unsound and unfair election policy as a result.”

In making his decisions—which will impact 40 percent of Ohio’s registered Democrats and more than a quarter of registered voters statewide—Husted cited budgetary concerns and the need to maintain uniformity in the elections process across the state.

“As we all know at this point, at least two dozen counties in Ohio have voted to expand early voting opportunities, so the “uniformity” principle is out the window,” said County Executive FitzGerald.  “And our Cuyahoga County Board of Elections – and other county Boards – have available funding and should be able to make the best use of it in providing more opportunities to vote.”

According to the Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates, as many as 14,000 citizens cast ballots during early voting times in the 2008 general election that will no longer be available as a result of the Secretary of State’s ruling. Moreover, Husted’s decision will likely have a disproportionate impact on African American voters, who cast 56 percent of all early in-person ballots despite comprising only 26 percent of the county’s population.

“Hardworking Ohioans need more than just regular business hours to vote,” Said Senator Turner. “They shouldn’t have to choose between going to work and casting their ballot.”