ELECTION COUNTDOWN: Kathleen Clyde for Secretary of State

 

The high-profile races on the ballot this November 6 are those for governor (Rich Cordray v. Mike DeWine) and U.S. Senator (Sherrod Brown v. Jim Renacci). But there’s another race I’d argue is equally critical: secretary of state, a race that includes Democrat Kathleen Clyde and Republican Frank La Rose.

In fact, all four statewide down-ticket races are important — they also include attorney general, auditor and treasurer — and a responsible voter should educate themselves about the candidates and make sure to vote in these races. But the secretary of state is the state’s top elections official — and elections are the gateway to every other issue.

Whether you care about health care or immigration, gun safety or education, women’s reproductive rights or the environment, elections determine what action will (or won’t) be taken. Three factors have warped our elections and made them unfair and our elected officials unrepresentative: big money in campaigns, gerrymandering and voter suppression. The first is primarily a national issue; the second Ohio has begun to deal with via ballot issues when politicians who benefited refused to act. (They kick in with redistricting following the 2022 elections).

The third is something the secretary of state has control over — and it’s the reason we should elect Kathleen Clyde. In her eight years in the state legislature, she has been a tireless voice for voter access. She has advocated for protecting and expanding early voting and for automatic voter registration at 18, an idea already enacted in 13 states. It has been shown to increase turnout, which is shamefully low in the U.S. She’s vowed to end the voter purges for infrequent voting, which our current secretary of state Jon Husted defended all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. She also supports moving all counties to paper-ballot voting systems.

Frank LaRose’s issues page offers a contrast. He leads with the office’s business functions (an important but lesser function of the office) — cutting regulations, streamlining, saving tax dollars. He spotlights “modernizing campaign finance,” also laudable but not critical to voting.

But finally, when he gets around to elections themselves — “Protecting the Ballot” is the final thing on his issues page — he focuses on a fiction that has fueled voter suppression: that large numbers of “non-citizens” are voting. He throws out an unverified claim made last year by Husted: that 82 non-citizens voted. Even if true — and that’s unlikely; there’s been no follow-up, no charges — it’s a small number and doesn’t justify extreme measures which only serve to discourage and/or disenfranchise legal voters.

The bottom line is that those most discouraged by voter suppression methods such as ID laws, voter purges, inconvenient hours and polling places, and long waits are groups that predominantly vote for Democrats — young voters, people of color, poorer people. Republicans know this, which is why they’ve waved the specter of hordes of “illegals” voting to justify voter suppression methods. The fewer people vote, the more they benefit — but the less representative our government is.

One more thing: in Ohio the Secretary of State office is the ultimate steppingstone to higher office. Every SoS since Ted Brown left office in 1980 has run for governor or senator (Sherrod Brown was SoS, and you can better believe Jon Husted, currently on the ticket as lieutenant governor, is eying the top spot next time around). Clyde and LaRose are both young — both are 39 — and undoubtedly looking at their political futures. So we have to ask ourselves — which one would we rather see in the governor’s mansion or send to the U.S. Senate? We’ve never had a woman in either of those offices, and Clyde is bright, knowledgable, hardworking, personable, and progressive. She is exactly the kind of person who can help lead Ohio to a brighter future — which starts with protecting the right to vote.

[Written by Anastasia Pantsios]

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