By Joe Hallett
Columbus Dispatch Thursday August 9, 2012 1:17 PM
Ohio’s registered voters will be able to update their addresses online with a new Internet tool launched today by Secretary of State Jon Husted.
Talking to reporters after a press conference in his office, Husted also said he opposes a redistricting reform amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot, calling it potentially “just as bad or worse than the current system.”
Husted said the new online service, accessible at www.MyOhioVote.com, will help Ohio voters accomplish a primary responsibility in order to vote – register at their current addresses at least 30 days before an election.
“We are making it easier for Ohio voters to do their part in making Election Day run smoothly,” Husted said. “This added convenience for voters is also a powerful tool against voter fraud as current and accurate voter rolls leave less room for abuse.”
At the website, voters will be led through a process to update their addresses, requiring four identification keys that match Ohio’s statewide voter registration database: last name, Ohio driver’s license number, the last digits of their Social Security number and date of birth. Voters who don’t meet these requirements can print and complete a voter registration and change of address form and mail it to their county boards of election.
Husted estimated that if the online address tool had been available in the 2008 presidential election, 130,000 Ohioans could have cast regular ballots rather than provisional ones because of questions about their eligibility. Provisional ballots are not counted until a voter’s eligibility is verified.
“With more voters expected to participate in the presidential election, it follows that there will be more provisional ballots,” Husted said. “My hope is that more Ohioans will take advantage of the new online change of address system so they can vote a regular ballot.”
A voter who completes the online process will receive a notice to confirm the change of address, along with information on where to vote, from his or her county board of election.
The Ohio Association of Elected Officials praised the new online address updating system, calling it “the wave of the future.”
“This process is easy for voters and election officials alike, and will help reduce provisional voting across the state,” said Karla Herron, the association’s first vice-president. “ People bank online, shop online and pay bills online. It just makes sense that they update their voting information online.”
Asked about a constitutional amendment his office certified for the fall ballot that would change the way Ohio draws legislative and congressional districts, Husted, a Republican, told reporters it is a bad plan that he could not support.
“I’m for reform, I’m just not for this plan,” he said.
The amendment is sponsored by the League of Women Voters and other nonprofit groups, and supported by some labor unions and the Ohio Democratic Party. It proposes a new system of drawing Ohio’s 99 House, 33 Senate and 16 congressional districts that would remove the ability to gerrymander by the political party controlling the Statehouse. The Ohio GOP, which has big majorities in the Ohio House and Senate and the state’s congressional delegation, opposes the amendment.
Husted long has championed redistricting reform and as a state senator in 2009 he convinced the GOP-controlled body to pass a reform bill, which later died in what then was a Democratic-controlled House.
“This is not reform,” Husted said, referring to the November ballot proposal. “This has the potential to be just as bad or worse than the current system.”
Husted said the two political parties should come together and agree on a better plan for redrawing districts, fretting that the one on the ballot could set back reform efforts.
“I think they’re going to lose and when they do, they’re going to undermine the chances of getting this done,” he said.
Talking to reporters after a press conference in his office, Husted also said he opposes a redistricting reform amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot, calling it potentially “just as bad or worse than the current system.”
Husted said the new online service, accessible at www.MyOhioVote.com, will help Ohio voters accomplish a primary responsibility in order to vote – register at their current addresses at least 30 days before an election.
“We are making it easier for Ohio voters to do their part in making Election Day run smoothly,” Husted said. “This added convenience for voters is also a powerful tool against voter fraud as current and accurate voter rolls leave less room for abuse.”
At the website, voters will be led through a process to update their addresses, requiring four identification keys that match Ohio’s statewide voter registration database: last name, Ohio driver’s license number, the last digits of their Social Security number and date of birth. Voters who don’t meet these requirements can print and complete a voter registration and change of address form and mail it to their county boards of election.
Husted estimated that if the online address tool had been available in the 2008 presidential election, 130,000 Ohioans could have cast regular ballots rather than provisional ones because of questions about their eligibility. Provisional ballots are not counted until a voter’s eligibility is verified.
“With more voters expected to participate in the presidential election, it follows that there will be more provisional ballots,” Husted said. “My hope is that more Ohioans will take advantage of the new online change of address system so they can vote a regular ballot.”
A voter who completes the online process will receive a notice to confirm the change of address, along with information on where to vote, from his or her county board of election.
The Ohio Association of Elected Officials praised the new online address updating system, calling it “the wave of the future.”
“This process is easy for voters and election officials alike, and will help reduce provisional voting across the state,” said Karla Herron, the association’s first vice-president. “ People bank online, shop online and pay bills online. It just makes sense that they update their voting information online.”
Asked about a constitutional amendment his office certified for the fall ballot that would change the way Ohio draws legislative and congressional districts, Husted, a Republican, told reporters it is a bad plan that he could not support.
“I’m for reform, I’m just not for this plan,” he said.
The amendment is sponsored by the League of Women Voters and other nonprofit groups, and supported by some labor unions and the Ohio Democratic Party. It proposes a new system of drawing Ohio’s 99 House, 33 Senate and 16 congressional districts that would remove the ability to gerrymander by the political party controlling the Statehouse. The Ohio GOP, which has big majorities in the Ohio House and Senate and the state’s congressional delegation, opposes the amendment.
Husted long has championed redistricting reform and as a state senator in 2009 he convinced the GOP-controlled body to pass a reform bill, which later died in what then was a Democratic-controlled House.
“This is not reform,” Husted said, referring to the November ballot proposal. “This has the potential to be just as bad or worse than the current system.”
Husted said the two political parties should come together and agree on a better plan for redrawing districts, fretting that the one on the ballot could set back reform efforts.
“I think they’re going to lose and when they do, they’re going to undermine the chances of getting this done,” he said.
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