Columbus, Ohio – Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose sent this directive to the 88 county boards of elections offices yesterday.
It reads in part, “In the wake of the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision last week invalidating the February 24, 2022 General Assembly district plan, it is not possible to include the primary contests for the Ohio House, Ohio Senate, and State Central Committee on the May 3, 2022 Primary Election ballot.…Therefore, offices and candidates for Ohio House, Ohio Senate, or State Central Committee will not appear on the ballot….” (emphasis added)
The re-scheduled date for the Ohio Senate, Ohio House and State Central Committee primary elections has not yet been announced.
There will be a primary election in Ohio on May 3rd, plus early voting starting April 5, for several other offices and issues. Governor, Secretary of State and U.S. Senate primary elections are a few of the races which have not been postponed.
Meetings of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, as well as two recently-appointed mediators, are scheduled over the next several days in order to meet deadlines imposed by the Ohio Supreme Court. The district lines proposed for the Ohio Senate and Ohio House have been hotly contested via lawsuits against the Commission and have not been satisfactory to a majority of the court.
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Editorial Opinion by Brian Massie, Executive Director
The decision to hold two primaries for the 2022 election cycle is very costly to the Ohio citizens. I have been told that this will cost the Ohio taxpayers $30 million, and Lake County will have to pay in excess of $200,000 to hold a second primary. That money could have been better spent giving seniors a tax break on their property taxes.
In addition, there have been tremendous complexities added to the whole planning process for each county Board of Elections: creating separate ballots, verifying the accuracy of the paper ballots and computer programming, ensuring enough poll workers, determining the voter’s political party if they declare different party affiliation in each primary, updating the voter database, etc.
My greatest concern is that the decisions by the legislative and judicial branches of our State government will have a possible negative impact on the outcome of the election. Will voters turn out for both primaries, or will the second election have a much smaller vote count?
There has been a great deal of talk, by candidates and average citizens, throughout the State of Ohio questioning the integrity of our elections. I have done my best, at a personal cost I may add, to reinforce that there was no voter fraud in Lake County. However, this latest fiasco created by State government officials will not sit well with citizens that demand free and fair elections, and will, unfortunately, continue to undermine our constitutional Republic.
We hear a lot of threats about a “constitutional crisis”…Can there be any greater crisis than politicians interfering with the election process?
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Categories: Lake County Politics, State of Ohio