| << Front page | Commentary | September 9, 2005 |
Voting reform bill requires closer scrutiny, other letters
To the Editors:
The serious problems that emerged out of Ohio’s November 2004 election clearly indicate the need for election reform in our state. There is an election reform bill, House Bill 3, that has been passed in the House of the Ohio General Assembly and is now awaiting the approval of the Senate.
HB3 would introduce a vast array of changes to the Ohio Revised Code’s sections on election law, Title XXXV. Some of the changes have the effect of actually restricting voter access to the polls.
For example, the bill enlarges the category of voters required to vote by provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are set aside, examined after the polls close and may or may not be counted.
One provision of this bill may be illegal. The confirmation card that boards of election will have to send out 45 days before election, if returned to the board (voter moved, etc.), would cause that voter to be flagged, required to show ID and vote with a provisional ballot.
There are other examples in HB3 that make the exercise of our right and duty to vote more cumbersome for the voter and a longer and more bureaucratic process for the poll worker.
The cause of the problems we encountered in the 2004 election was system failure, not fraud. HB3, however, does not address the need for better training for boards of election personnel and poll workers. Indeed, HB3 makes the work of those officials more complex without making provision for material, instruction or support.
For an analysis of HB3, you may telephone Document Distribution at the Statehouse at 614-466-9745, or for internet access to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, search www.lsc.state.oh.us/analyses and choose “126th Assembly Bills.”
HB3 attempts to fix things that don’t need fixing while ignoring our serious system problems. I urge Ohio voters to write to their senators in the Ohio legislature asking for a better election reform bill than HB3.
– Jean Binford
President of League of Women Voters of the Oberlin
Area
To the Editors:
The Lorain County Rape Crisis Center offers the following resources to anyone in need of sexual assault support services:
- 24-hour hotline response: 1-800-888-6161 (Ask for rape crisis on-call advocate)
- Sexual Assault Care Unit: collection of evidence
- Legal Advocacy
- Child Advocacy
- One-on-one support and edu-cation to survivors of sexualassault/abuse
- One-on-one support and edu-cation to significant others of survivors
- Curriculum-based support and education group
- Community education
All services provided at Nord Rape Crisis follow the rape crisis model of support and education and the belief and focus that all sexual abuse is about power and control, therefore examined first and foremost as a crime of violence. Furthermore, services are free and anonymous. A Nord Rape Crisis Advocate has office hours on campus in Wilder 301 (“The Living Room”) the first and third Tuesday of every month, from 1:00-4:30 p.m. You do not need an appointment, just stop by.
The Nord Rape Crisis Center also trains and utilizes volunteers both for community education and to answer the hotline. Hotline volunteers have been, and are currently, Oberlin College students, Lorain County residents, people of color, people interested in the justice system, bilingual people and LGBT persons.
If you have any questions about Nord Rape Crisis Services, please contact Kay Jones, Crisis Advocate at imagineyou@hotmail.com.
– Lori K. Morgan Flood
Assistant Dean/Director of Health and
Life Skills Education
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