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Ohio voters will face single ballot question on expanded voting
Apr 15 2020
In a victory for election reformers, the Ohio Supreme Court has decided a package of proposed election changes in how the state votes should be put to voters as a single measure.
The court on Tuesday agreed with the organization promoting the referendum and blocked Secretary of State Frank LaRose and other Republican state officials from dividing the proposed constitutional amendment into four ballot questions.
<p>The ruling, which appears technical, is nonetheless significant for those who favor the reforms. That's because they believe their package has a better chance if put to one up-or-down vote. Plus, Ohio is a presidential battleground that's tilted red in recent years and anything that could boost turnout is likely to favor Democrats.</p><p>The Secure and Fair Elections Amendment would bring about automatic and same-day voter registration, a guarantee of a month of in-person early voting and routine post-election audits to verify that election results are accurate.</p><p>Advocates for the package, a collection of mostly progresisve group called Ohioans for Secure and Fair Elections, still must gather more than 400,000 signatures of registered voters by July 1 to get the amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot. </p><p>Had the high court ruled the other way, that signature threshold would have been quadrupled — and essentially impossible to meet without a miraculous disappearance of the coronavirus.</p><p>The Ohio Ballot Board, which includes the secretary of state and four appointed members, had voted in March to break up the proposed amendment into separate questions. The subsequent lawsuit notes that LaRose had already stated his opposition to the package and that dividing the question would hurt its chances of going before the votes.</p><p>The Supreme Court did reject the request by proponents of the amendments for additional time to gather signatures.</p><p>Approval would make Ohio the 17th state that automatically registers eligible residents when they do business with the motor vehicle bureau. Most are Democratic strongholds and just two, Colorado and Michigan, are on the list of remotely possible swing states this fall. </p><p>Adopting the package would permit voters to register and cast ballots at polling locations during early voting and on Election Day, similar to the laws on the books in 21 states. The deadline is now 30 days beforehand, one of the longest lead times in the country.</p><p>Ohio has famously been carried by the winner of every presidential election since 1964, and no Republicans has ever won the White House without it. President Trump is counting on its 18 electoral votes, but his edge in recent statewide polling has slipped now that former Vice President Joe Biden has secured the Democratic nomination.</p>
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Democracy Madness regional final: Voting Rights Act vs. ranked-choice voting
Apr 15 2020
The championship round in the Democracy Madness bracket's Voting region has arrived. And the top-seeded contenders have emerged at the front of the pack. But which one will be victorious?
Ranked-choice voting blew voting at home out of the water, even with all the talk about changing how ballots are cast in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. RCV has consistently destroyed its opponents throughout the tournament, winning by at least 30 points in every round.
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Writing a new Voting Rights Act, which came in as the No. 1 seed, had its first real challenge of the tournament, going head-to-head with nationwide automatic voter registration. Beating AVR by just 11 points, the New VRA looks to have another difficult battle taking on RCV, which has cruised into the finals.
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It's time to cast your ballot and decide. Which will be the 2020 Democracy Madness voting "region" champ? Balloting is open through Thursday and the winner will be revealed Friday. Click "Vote Now!" and make your choice.
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Democracy Madness: Final Four set in our Voting bracket
Apr 13 2020
The favorites took care of business in the second round of the Voting region of our Democracy Madness bracket. Now you get to decide who heads to the "regional" finals.
Will it be the No. 1 seed, a new Voting Rights Act, which blew away the idea of expanded early voting? Or maybe No. 4, universal automatic voter registration, will keep on rolling after shutting down the call for expanded felons' voting rights.
The No 3 seed, voting at home, is the darling of the moment and ended the Cinderella run for No. 11 STAR Voting. But now it faces the No. 2 seed, ranked-choice voting, which had the most dominating win of the round — absolutely crushing another surprise performer, the No. 10 seed, a ban on straight-ticket voting.
The 2-vs-3 game may be the biggest matchup of the tournament, with RCV and vote-at-home trying to keep their momentum going. RCV has had the longer public relations campaign, but the coronavirus has made voting at home (absentee ballots sent to everyone) the story of the season. Keep your eye on that one.
<p>Remember: You can click the matchups, then each label, for more about the surviving proposals. But there are just two days for this round — so don't forget to press the Vote Now button and make all four choices.</p><p>After this quarter of the draw gets done, look for future brackets contesting ideas for reforming campaign finance, elections, civic life and Congress. Ultimately, we're looking for our readers to tell us what they view as the most transformative idea for reforming democracy out of 64 leading proposals.</p><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><div class="commonninja_component" comp-id="be318521-c10f-467a-9c28-68fb035dd5f7" comp-type="bracket"></div></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"></div><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><script type="text/javascript"> (function() {
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Democracy Madness: On to the Elite Eight (Voting Division)
Apr 08 2020
How low does a seed have to be to officially be a "Cinderella" team? Banning straight-ticket voting and promoting so-called STAR voting have scored big upsets, but otherwise the top seeds in the Voting division of our Democracy Madness bracket are through to the Elite Eight.
The next round starts Wednesday and continues Thursday.
Automatic voter registration and ranked-choice voting blew away their opponents in the first round, while felon voting rights and early voting both snuck through. AVR and felon voting rights are going head-to-head now. Will felon voting rights be able to pull off the upset? Or will AVR continue to crush its opponents?
<p>Remember: You can click the matchups, then each label, for more about the surviving proposals. But there are just two days for this round — so don't forget to press the Vote Now button and make all four choices.</p><p>After this quarter of the draw gets done, look for future brackets contesting ideas for reforming campaign finance, elections, civic life and Congress. Ultimately, we're looking for our readers to tell us what they view as the most transformative idea for reforming democracy out of 64 leading proposals.</p><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><div class="commonninja_component" comp-id="be318521-c10f-467a-9c28-68fb035dd5f7" comp-type="bracket"></div></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><script type="text/javascript"> (function() {
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