Racial and Ethnic Perspectives in Ohio Elections

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Racial and Ethnic Perspectives in Ohio Elections

• Noon-time policy discussion
• October 16, 2006
• john a. powell
• Williams Chair in Civil Rights Civil Liberties,
  Moritz College of Law. Director, Kirwan Institute

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Overview

• Voting Demographics in Ohio
• Ohio Election Law and Recent Court Challenges
• Ohios Democratic Future

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Ground Zero

• Because of the pivotal role Ohio played in
  recent presidential elections, the state often
  seems to land itself in the national political
  spotlight.
• Pivotal bellwether swing state
• 7th largest state in the nation
• Population 11,464,042 (2005 estimate)
• Registered Voters 6,003,000 (2004) out of a
  voting age population of 8,305,000 (2004)

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Ohio by Race (2004)

• 85.2 White
• 11.9 Black
• 2.2 Hispanic origin
• 1.4 Asian
• 1.2 Two or more races
• 0.2 American Indian Alaska Native

• Urban population 80.5   
• Rural Population 19.5
• Most populous cities 1. Columbus 2. Cleveland
  3. Cincinnati 4. Toledo 5. Akron

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Ohio House of Representative Boundaries (State)
and the African American Population
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Ohio Senate Boundaries (State) and the African
American Population
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Ohio House of Representative Boundaries (State)
and the Latino Population
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Ohio Senate Boundaries (State) and the
LatinoPopulation
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Voting by Race/Ethnicity

• African American voter registration and voter
  participation were high in the 2004 election
• 70.3 of Ohios African American population was
  registered to vote in 2004
• 65.5 of Ohios African American population voted
  in the 2004 election

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Presidential Vote Compared to Neighborhoods by
Race in Columbus, OH
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Civic Engagement

• Voting more than casting a ballot (but expression
  and having a stake in future)
• Marginalized communities often do not participate
  in political process.
• Long history of trying to keep certain groups out
  (poll tax, literacy tests, and the white primary
  are examples).
• Even with these oppressive tactics behind us
  there are new barriers.

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Modern Election Issues of Major Concern

• the equipment used to cast and count votes
• voter registration requirements and procedures
• voter identification requirements
• provisional ballots
• challenges to voter eligibility
• long lines at the polling place
• recounts and contests

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Impediments to Voting In Ohio's 2004 election

• The Secretary of State is Ohios chief election
  official.
• In 2004, Sec. of State Ken Blackwell issued
  orders not to count provisional ballots cast in
  the wrong precinct, and orders (later rescinded)
  to require that registration forms be on 80-lb.
  paper weight.
• Caging Before the 2004 election, the
  Republican Party challenged voters' eligibility
  by sending letters to over 200,000 newly
  registered voters, and sought to have lt 35,000
  voters taken off registration lists when the
  letters were returned. These pre-election
  challenges were ultimately stopped by a federal
  district court.

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Impediments to Voting In Ohio's 2004 election

• Punch-card voting systems were used by over 70
  of voters in Ohio's 2004 election ? loss of tens
  of thousands of votes.
• Long lines concentrated in urban areas with high
  minority populations, including Franklin and Knox
  Counties. DNC-sponsored survey found 3 of
  voters (over 174,000) left polls without casting
  ballots due to long lines.

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Challenging Punch-Card Ballots

• In 2002, a group of voters residing in four Ohio
  counties that used punch-card systems brought
  suit claiming that, compared to voters who used
  reliable electronic voting equipment, voters who
  used the punch card systems were four times more
  likely not to have their vote counted.
• The plaintiffs also presented evidence that
  punch-card equipment interacts with socioeconomic
  conditions and produces a higher residual vote
  rate for African-American voters than for white
  voters.

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Challenging Punch-Card Ballots Stewart v.
Blackwell

• Plaintiffs alleged
• that that the use of unreliable, deficient voting
  equipment (including the punch card ballot) in
  some Ohio counties but not others violates the
  Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
  Amendment
• that the use of unreliable equipment violated
  their due process right to have their votes
  counted accurately,
• and that the use of punch card voting systems has
  a disparate impact on African-American voters in
  violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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Spoiled Ballots and African American Precincts in
the 2000 Election
Cleveland State University, College of Urban
Affairs, Urban Update, March/April 2005
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Stewart v. Blackwell

• Applying strict scrutiny, the Sixth Circuit Court
  of Appeals declared that Ohio 's practices indeed
  violated the Equal Protection Clause, but further
  factual determinations must be made on remand in
  order to determine whether the practices violated
  the Voting Rights Act.
• However, this order has been vacated pending a
  re-hearing of this case by the full Sixth
  Circuit.

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Ohio Law House Bill 3

• Earlier this year, the Ohio legislature passed a
  massive bill (Substitute House Bill 3, or H.B.
  3) overhauling the states system of election
  administration, in part, to comply with the 2002
  Help America Vote Act. In many respects this new
  legislation threatens to make things worse rather
  than better.

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Boustani v. Blackwell

• Section 3505.20 of H.B. 3 allowed for
  polling-place challenges to voters eligibility
  based on citizenship grounds.
• If a persons citizenship is challenged or
  questioned by an election official, and if the
  person is a naturalized citizen, the person must
  produce documentary proof of citizenship.  Native
  born citizens merely need to say that they were
  born here.
• On Oct 4, 2006 a US District Court permanently
  enjoined Section 3505.20 of H.B. 3 on the ground
  that it is unconstitutional.

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Voter ID Requirement

• Ohio House Bill 3 requires voters to bring
  identification to the polls. Voters must submit
• Current driver's license or photo ID, whether or
  not it has current address.  If the address not
  current, voter may be asked for last four digits
  of his or her driver's license or photo ID
  number.
• Other current photo ID issued by federal or state
  government showing voters name and current
  address
• A military ID with voters name and current
  address.  
• A utility bill, bank statement, government check,
  pay check, or other government document that
  shows the voters name and current address.  A
  mailed registration notice from the board of
  elections will not suffice.

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Voter ID Requirement

• Is this a new poll tax since an individual must
  pay for any type of state issued ID?
• Other acceptable forms of identificationcurrent
  utility bill, bank statement, government check,
  paycheck, or other government document that
  shows the voters name and current
  addressassumes some type of income or permanent
  residency.
• If the voter doesnt present one of these
  documents, the voter is still entitled to cast a
  provisional ballot. That will require them to
  sign an affirmation that theyre registered and
  eligible to vote. The rules for determining
  whether a provisional ballot will actually be
  counted are quite complicated.

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Voter Registration

• Registering people to vote will be more difficult
  under the new bill.
• H.B. 3 requires pre-registration and online
  training for all compensated individuals who
  participate in voter registration drives, as well
  as the filing of a sworn affirmation that such
  requirements were met, before any assistance has
  been given.
• Before H.B. 3, voter registration groups could
  recruit individuals on an as-needed basis, even
  on short-notice.

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Voter Registration

• H.B. 3 requires also forbids voter registration
  workers from turning registration forms into
  civic groups. They must personally file the
  registration forms or face severe criminal
  penalties.
• Prior to H.B. 3, individuals working with civic
  groups and churches to register voters could turn
  in forms to those groups, who would later turn
  them into a registrars office.

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Voter Registration Project Vote v. Blackwell

• Plaintiffs alleged that these recent amendments
  to the Ohio Elections Code, by virtue of the
  enactment of Ohio House Bill 3, severely impact
  third-party voter registration efforts in Ohio
  and hinder low-income, minority, and disabled
  citizens from registering to vote in violation of
  Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
• A US District Court recently issued a temporary
  injunction against the pre-registration,
  training, and affirmation requirements and the
  direct return requirements. The case is still
  pending in federal court.

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Democracy

• Designed to solve a particular set of problems.
  These problems change over time as do the values
  we think Democracy represents. Today, Democracy
  serves to manage the pluralism of a diverse
  society.
• Democracy should bring people together in the
  arena of public decision-making as participants,
  not as spectators.
• Our system of winner-take-all, single member
  districts results in under-representation of
  minorities as does the Electoral College.

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Representation and Democracy

• Rights and Equality are two key values enshrined
  in our Constitution, but Structure also matters.
  Our system broke down when the rules protected
  the subjugation of minorities Democracy
  requires fair rules!
• The Civil War Amendments, particularly the
  Fourteenth Amendment, transformed the
  constitutional design with fundamental notions of
  fairness to be extended to everyone and to be
  applied against all levels of government. It was
  a new act of Constituting bringing freed slaves
  into the political community.

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Structure and Electoral Reform

• We should take our electoral challenges as an
  opportunity to foster a broader debate about the
  values we seek to promote and the institutional
  apparatus of our democracy.
• Electronic voting has the potential to advance
  racial equality at the same time that there are
  new, unforeseen concerns surrounding this
  technology.
• Election reform should not be seen as a
  once-in-a-generation occurrence, but as an
  ongoing process to mirror our evolving
  understanding of democracy and our need for
  innovation and experimentation.

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