LOVELAND MAGAZINE

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Legislative effort to support pregnancy doulas has bipartisan support

BY: SUSAN TEBBEN – Ohio Capital Journal

Maternal and infant health advocates and certified doulas alike expressed their support Monday for a bill currently awaiting consideration by the Ohio Senate to bring doula services into the state’s Medicaid program.

Participants in a meeting of the Ohio Legislative Children’s Caucus met with organizations employing and promoting the use of doulas as part of the childbirth process in Ohio, before, during and after a baby is born.

Caucus co-vice chair, state Rep. Susan Manchester, R-Waynesville, brought up a 2022 March of Dimes report card which gave Ohio a D+ in the area of preterm birth. Ohio has a 10.6% preterm birth rate, according to the report.

“Further opportunities to ensure access to appropriate health care services before, during, and after childbirth cannot be left on the table when the 134th General Assembly ends,” Manchester told the caucus at their Monday meeting.

Doulas are individuals with non-medical training, who are there to act as educators, resource coordinators, and advocates for their patients as they go through pregnancy and postpartum life. They work alongside a medical team, including a midwife, the medical professional who serves as complement to a doula.

Doulas are there to provide everything from sex education to postpartum depression screening, and everything in between, to provide emotional and physical support.

“We’re attending appointments with them, and then we’re going to review what the clinicians have said to them to make sure they’re actually understanding what they heard, and that they’re not just being spoken at,” said Jazmin Long, CEO of Birthing Beautiful Communities, a Cleveland and Akron-based non-profit.

Doulas go through rigorous training, with BBC providing an 80-hour training program, with the requirement that participants score 90% or higher on the certification exam to move forward with the organization. Long said BBC’s perinatal doulas are paid between $500 and $800 per birth.

With proper training, doulas are a “vital person in the care team,” according to Meredith Strayhorn, a certified doula who is also a student midwife and financial and operations director for the Cincinnati-based collective Blaq Birth Circle. The collective partners with Cradle Cincinnati and Caresource to provide doula services in the area.

“It’s especially important navigating through the hospital system, where we know there is a lot of systemic racism, there are a lot of providers who do not listen to clients, and I have actually seen that happen several times, which is really heartbreaking,” Strayhorn said.

Doulas can increase positive birth outcomes, which can mean less spending on health care. Strayhorn said research shows continuous doula support during and after pregnancy can decrease risk of cesarean sections and the use of pain medications, and increases patient satisfaction.

As part of the effort to make doulas more accessible to more Ohioans, Long and Strayhorn said House Bill 142 would be a good start, as it would establish five-year coverage programs for doula services for the state’s Medicaid program and within the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The ODRC program would allow doula services to “inmates participating in any prison nursery program,” according to an analysis of the bill conducted by the Legislative Service Commission.

“From what I’m hearing, everyone’s been supportive,” said state Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Mt. Lookout, who created the bill along with former Democratic state Rep. Erica Crawley.

Under the bill, doulas would have to hold a certificate from the Ohio Board of Nursing, and a “valid provider agreement.”

A registry of doulas would also be created by HB 142 within the Board of Nursing, along with a “doula advisory board” within the board, specifically for those serving the Medicaid program.

The board is to be made up of at least 13 members, all appointed by the Board of Nursing, with the requirement that at least three be members “representing communities most impacted by negative maternal and fetal health outcomes,” and at least six members who are currently certified doulas.

HB 142 passed the Ohio House, proving bipartisan support with a GOP supermajority present in the House. The Senate has a GOP supermajority as well, and Brinkman said he is hopeful the support will continue.

“The funding is there, and I think that once we do it … I think the insurance plans that provide private care will see that this is a savings in the number of C-sections and prescription medicine and epidurals,” Brinkman said.

As the legislation goes forward, the Ohio Department of Medicaid announced their own plan to implement doula services as part of a Maternal and Infant Support program, with the doula program to roll out at the end of a 2-3 year phase-in, announced in 2021.

The ODM doesn’t cover doula care as a billable service currently, but provided $1 million in Ohio Equity Institute grants to groups in Cuyahoga, Franklin and Lucas counties for such services between 2020 and 2021, according to the department.

The bill is not up for a hearing this week, but Brinkman said he is set to meet with Senate Health Committee chairman Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, this week to discuss next steps for the bill.

Nov 29, 2022
Holiday Tree Lighting this Saturday in Historic Downtown

Loveland, Ohio – Tree lighting and caroling will begin at 7 PM this Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Jackson Street Market in Historic Downtown. The market is on the Loveland Bike Trail. Non-perishable food donations will be collected for Loveland LIFE Food Pantry. There will be food trucks, live music, and holiday treats. Admission is free to the event that will run from 4 until 8 PM.

Nov 29, 2022
Student loan repayment pause extended by White House amid legal battles over relief plan

BY: ARIANA FIGUEROA – Ohio Capital Journal

The Department of Education announced on Tuesday it is extending the pandemic-era pause on federal student loan repayments until June 30 while legal challenges to the administration’s student debt relief program are fought over in the courts.

The agency said if the student debt relief program has not been put in place by June 30, and if litigation is still tied up in the courts, student loan payments will begin 60 days after that.

“Payments will resume 60 days after the Department is permitted to implement the program or the litigation is resolved, which will give the Supreme Court an opportunity to resolve the case during its current Term,” the department said in a statement. “If the program has not been implemented and the litigation has not been resolved by June 30, 2023 — payments will resume 60 days after that.”

Earlier the administration had said the pandemic-era pause would expire on New Year’s Eve. Two lawsuits blocking the Biden plan, including one brought by six GOP-led states, have been appealed by the Justice Department, but it’s unclear how long the legal process could take.

“We’re extending the payment pause because it would be deeply unfair to ask borrowers to pay a debt that they wouldn’t have to pay, were it not for the baseless lawsuits brought by Republican officials and special interests,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

President Joe Biden, in a Tuesday tweet, said the extension will give “the Supreme Court time to hear the case in its current term.”

“I’m confident that our student debt relief plan is legal,” he said on Twitter.

Before the announcement, more than 200 advocacy groups had urged Biden to extend the pause.

In a Monday letter, the groups argued that if student loan repayments restart, it would be a financial setback for borrowers, especially at a time of record high inflation.

“We, the undersigned 225 organizations, urge you to immediately extend the payment pause until your Administration is able to fully implement debt relief for all eligible borrowers and to continue to use every legal authority at your disposal to make this relief real,” according to the letter.

“We cannot allow these blatantly political lawsuits to throw millions of borrowers into financial catastrophe,” the letter said. “Throwing millions of borrowers back into repayment as the state of debt relief remains uncertain is a recipe for disaster and will result in widespread confusion and set borrowers up for failure.”

Most of the organizations that signed onto the letter include labor groups like the AFL-CIO, legal organizations like the ACLU and NAACP, and debt cancellation advocacy groups such as the Debt Collective and Student Debt Crisis Center.

Multiple extensions

The Trump administration implemented the pause on student loan repayments due to the coronavirus pandemic and the Biden administration has extended it multiple times.

A federal appeals court issued a nationwide injunction that barred the Biden administration from carrying out its student debt relief plan following the challenge by the six GOP-led states — Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina.

The Biden administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the nationwide injunction.

“The Eighth Circuit’s erroneous injunction leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo, uncertain about the size of their debt and unable to make financial decisions with an accurate understanding of their future repayment obligations,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the filing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In late August, Biden announced he would cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for Pell Grant borrowers and up to $10,000 for all other borrowers with an income of less than $125,000 for an individual and $250,000 for a household.

The program would only apply to current borrowers, not future ones, and income levels for the 2020 and 2021 tax years would be considered. Student loan borrowers who have private student loans would not be eligible.

The attorneys general from the states that launched the legal challenge argued that the loan relief program threatens those states’ future tax revenues and that the plan overrode congressional authority.

More than 43 million Americans have student loan debt, and the Federal Reserve estimates that the total U.S. student loan debt is more than $1.76 trillion.

The three-panel judge from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis put the injunction in place “until further order of this court or the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Those judges are Bobby E. Shepherd and Ralph R. Erickson, both President George W. Bush appointees, and L. Steven Grasz, a President Donald Trump appointee.

Following the decision, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House believes it has the legal authority to carry out the program.

“The Administration will continue to fight these baseless lawsuits by Republican officials and special interests and will never stop fighting to support working and middle class Americans,” she said in a statement.

26 million applicants

More than 26 million student loan borrowers have applied for the program, and 16 million have been accepted, according to the Department of Education.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the program would add $400 billion to the national deficit over the span of 30 years. The agency found that the pause on federal student loan repayments has cost $20 billion from September to December 2022.

Adam Looney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute — a left-leaning think tank — said while the cost seems high, for borrowers who qualify it comes out to a monthly average savings of about $59.

Looney previously was a senior economist for public finance and tax policy with former President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, and was an economist at the Federal Reserve Board.

“It’s like a tax cut,” Looney said of student loan borrowers who would qualify for debt relief.

Second lawsuit

The Biden administration stopped accepting applications for student debt relief following a second decision from a federal judge in Texas who separately ruled the program was unlawful.

In Fort Worth, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, ruled that the program was an “unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power.” He ruled in favor of two borrowers, backed by a conservative advocacy group, who brought the challenge.

The Department of Justice has already filed an appeal to that ruling.

Pittman wrote in his opinion that “[w]hether the Program constitutes good public policy is not the role of this Court to determine.”

Sabrina Calazans, the outreach director at the Student Debt Crisis Center, said prior to Tuesday’s announcement that the Biden administration should resume its pause on student loan repayment. The center also signed onto the letter to the White House from the more than 200 organizations.

“We’re advocating for an extension to the payment pause until student debt cancellation is applied to borrowers’ accounts,” she said. “We believe that borrowers should be able to get their debt canceled and not have to make any payments until that happens because they’ve been promised this relief.”

Calazans, who has student loan debt herself — federal and private loans — and is a first-generation college student, said the pause on repayments has been a lifeline for her and her family. The pause did not include private loans, which she has, so she’s had to continue those payments throughout the pandemic.

“Folks were struggling before the pandemic started,” she said of student loan debt. “This was already a crisis that people were dealing with beforehand, so this has been around for a long time, not just recently.”

Calazans said those student loan borrowers who applied to the Department of Education for debt relief are starting to get emails that their applications for student debt cancellation were approved, but the lawsuits are blocking it.

“Folks are excited about the prospect of having their debt canceled — whether it’s all of it or a portion of it — and now that hope that they had is now suddenly stopped for now because of the blocking of this plan,” she said. “Borrowers are in this limbo.”

Emails sent out

The Department of Education has sent out emails to student loan borrowers who applied, and were approved for the debt relief program with the subject line: “Your Student Loan Debt Relief Application Has Been Approved.”

However, the body of the email reads: “Unfortunately, a number of lawsuits have been filed challenging the program, which have blocked our ability to discharge your debt at present.”

“We believe strongly that the lawsuits are meritless, and the Department of Justice has appealed on our behalf,” according to the email. “We will keep your application information and will continue our review of your eligibility if and when we prevail in court. We will update you when there are new developments.”

Nov 24, 2022
Newly elected state school board member calls GOP plan to gut powers ‘Tornado from hell’

Seven of the 11 elected seats are now Democratic, stopping supermajority

BY: MARILOU JOHANEK – Ohio Capital Journal

“What you’re going to see in the lame duck session is going to be a tornado from hell.”

– Former state Sen. and now State School Board Member, Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo.

Former Ohio state Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, who won a seat on the State Board of Education in the Nov. 8, 2022 election. Official Statehouse photo.

Former state Sen. Teresa Fedor got out of the Statehouse before the last vestiges of democratic governance were flattened by a power-hungry party on steroids.

She knew a cyclone of destructive GOP legislation, super-charged by an unstoppable Republican juggernaut in the General Assembly, would be devastating. It is already bearing down fast on voting rights, citizen ballot initiatives, transgender protections, and Ohio women.

But as Fedor bid a bittersweet farewell to a 22-year legislative career after being elected to the State Board of Education, Republican colleagues sent her a parting gift of disrespect.

Barely a week after Fedor and two other Democratic candidates won seats on the state school board, ousting incumbent GOP extremists on the ballot, Republicans in the Ohio Senate quickly moved to gut board members’ educational oversight responsibilities to almost nothing.

It was an audacious power grab by Republican lawmakers to wrest authority from the state education board on the heels of an election in which voters spoke about what they wanted for their children in education.

“We’re essentially removing most of the education duties out of the control of the state school board and putting them in the governor’s office,” declared Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, as he unilaterally moved to nullify a democratic election.

With the super-super Republican majorities Huffman deviously engineered through lawless gerrymandering, he can drop any pretense of honoring the will of the people. Voters don’t matter. Hoarding power does. Sharing power with state board of education members who defeated Republican-backed anti-trans, anti-vax, anti-CRT, anti-anti-racism resolution clowns was nixed even before new members were sworn in.

Huffman’s plan is to ram through a bill in the next few weeks that removes all the board’s decision-making on educational matters, from curriculum and textbooks to academic development and planning, and gives that consequential stewardship to a political appointee who answers to the governor who answers to Huffman. See how it works?

Senate Bill 178 shrinks the influence of the Ohio Board of Education to a handful of administrative issues outside the classroom. Sponsor state Sen. Bill Reinke, R-Tiffin, stressed the need “for systemic change at the state level (after the Nov. 8 election) to our education system to ensure accountability to taxpayers and for our kids.”

Fedor rolled her eyes.

“They’ve been beating that drum for over 30 years. ‘Public schools are failing. We need accountability.’ And where are we on public education? They (Ohio Republicans) have been in control the whole time, except for four years under Strickland. If there’s a failure, it’s a failure on their part,” she said.

“This is the 25th year of an unconstitutional school funding formula in the state. Republicans failed to the provide equitable and adequate education for the common schools in Ohio for 25 years. They set up a failed charter school system (remember ECOT?) in which tax dollars go into a black hole never to be seen again. They expanded vouchers, the privatization of our public dollars, a bigger black hole. Legally taxpayers don’t have a right to see how that tax money is being spent.”

Fedor is outraged that Huffman and Co. are subverting the voice of Ohio voters with Senate Bill 178.

“This just shifts power from the people to an unaccountable cabinet member in the executive branch,” she fumed. “Republicans are creating another level of bureaucracy away from the public” to steamroll their goal of privatizing public institutions without transparency or accountability.

The incoming state school board member is resigned to what comes next. The Republican storm whipping through the legislature will weaken the Ohio State Board of Education by giving its power to the governor.

“They’ll have their hearing, maybe two,”Fedor explained. “They may get interested parties into a room and say how can we tweak this so you’ll accept it even if you don’t like it and we can say we worked with you.”

“They’ll put the language into a substitute bill that no one will see until the last minute before it gets voted on or fold it into a lame duck Christmas tree bill and say they did the public bidding and boast about it. But everyone will know it was a sham. That’s what abuse of power will do.”

After over two decades in the legislative trenches, Fedor recognizes ruthless.

“Ohio Republicans have been waiting in the wings to roll out their extreme agenda because now they have unlimited power in the legislature. Senate Bill 178 cues up the budget debate. If it becomes law, Republicans are then going to pour money into their bureaucratic schemes to privatize public institutions — including the most important one to secure democracy, public education. The select few will benefit but 90% of our children will be left behind.”

Fedor, who spent 17 years in the classroom, conceded, “I have no power other than my voice and experience and heart.”

But she is a formidable force in her own right and will fight to be heard over the tornado from hell roaring through the lame duck.

“I am never going to give up,” promised the state school board member under siege. “You have to have hope. There’s no other choice.”

Nov 24, 2022
Strategies to End Homelessness receives $5M grant to help end homelessness in Hamilton County

Hamilton County, Ohio – Strategies to End Homelessness, which leads a coordinated community effort to end homelessness in Greater Cincinnati, today announced that it has received a $5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund—the largest private gift in the organization’s history. Launched in 2018 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to leading organizations on the frontlines that are employing compassionate, needle-moving work to help families move from unsheltered homelessness and shelters to permanent housing with the services they require to achieve stability.

“Our analysis of homelessness data identifies solutions that are needed. Unfortunately, we only have enough capacity to help about a third of the families that are in need, and other funding sources do not support some of the services homeless families need the most,” said Kevin Finn, president and CEO of Strategies to End Homelessness. “We are grateful to the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund for this impactful grant, which will both expand capacity in existing data-driven programs and also support new services that data indicates are desperately needed.”

This one-time grant will help Strategies to End Homelessness and its partners in their tireless work to support families as they reel from skyrocketing rent costs, limited services, and insufficient incomes. Strategies to End Homelessness plans to use the grant funds to prevent many children and families from ever experiencing the trauma of homelessness, to break the cycle of homelessness for others and to assist hundreds of at-risk families to progress toward self-sufficiency in safe, stable housing.

Strategies to End Homelessness was selected as a Day 1 Families Fund grant recipient by a group of national advisors who are leading advocates and experts on homelessness and service provision. National advisors brought expertise on housing justice, advancing racial equity, and helping programs employ resources effectively to assist families out of homelessness.

Over the past five years, the Day 1 Families Fund has provided 170 grants totaling more than $520 million to organizations around the country working to combat homelessness and help families gain housing support and stability.

About The Bezos Day 1 Fund

The Bezos Day 1 Fund made a $2 billion commitment to focus on making meaningful and lasting impacts in two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities. The Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families. The vision statement comes from the inspiring Mary’s Place in Seattle: no child sleeps outside. For more information, visit www.BezosDayOneFund.org/Day1FamiliesFund.

About Strategies to End Homelessness

Strategies to End Homelessness, a 501(c)(3), leads the coordinated community effort to end homelessness in Greater Cincinnati and envisions a community in which everyone has a stable home
and the resources needed to maintain it. Through the coordination of the local homeless services system, administration of City, County, State, Federal and private funding to partner agencies, and the operation of programs, Strategies to End Homelessness prevents homelessness whenever possible, assists people out of homelessness, and offers solutions to homelessness through housing, serving approximately 11,000 people annually. For more information, go to https://www.strategiestoendhomelessness.org.

Nov 23, 2022
[Video] Meet Mike Carr and his OMEB

by David Miller

Loveland, Ohio – It’s been quite a while ago since I came across the music of Mike Carr and for a few years thought he grew up in Loveland so that connection made me keep paying attention to what he was up to. I soon learned he was behind the eclectic promotions of the New Richmond IGA and how the grocery store’s growth is now legendary.

And, learned he is not from the Loveland area at all.

About two months ago I also discovered the quite wonderful track he recorded as a Cincinnati Vampire, “Close my Eyes Forever” featuring artist Macy Addis. That’s when I promised myself I’d see Mike play as soon as I could. I got the fortunate chance when he brought his one man electrical band, OMEB to the Works Pizza on Wednesday, November 23rd.

“The first show (2004) was terrifying because Mike had finished recording the tracks hours before setting up for the first gig! It was peculiar to the venue because they had never seen someone walk in with a desktop computer, 24-inch CRT monitor, guitars and amp and say, “I’m your band tonight”. Shockingly, it worked, and the venue wanted him back!“

“Everyone told him this concept was not going to work, “No one is going to hire a heavy metal guitarist with a computer, they’ll laugh you off the stage.” Oddly enough, OMEB quickly became a household name in the Cincinnati area finding himself the ‘house band’ for the WEBN Dawn Patrol – playing multiple events ranging from their Pregnant Bikini Contest to the main stage for the Labor Fireworks Celebration!“

I’ve used LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV to bring to our pages some short clips of Mike’s performance that night at The Works Pizza and also below is “Close My Eyes Forever” which has gained over 1 million views!

If you read Dr. Carr’s bio I think you will find it quite interesting how Mike does what OMEB does, his background in music, education, and business. Not to name drop, however reading his bio you will recognize an impressive list of performers, venues, and events.

I am fortunate that I got to meet this rather famous musician right across the river In Historic Downtown Loveland.

OMEB on FaceBook

Nov 23, 2022
AARP Ohio calls on lawmakers to pass legislation to provide dementia training to first responders
AARP Ohio also asks the General Assembly to support bills that benefit Ohio’s 50 plus population as they age in place

Columbus, Ohio – Today, AARP called on Ohio lawmakers to pass House Bill 23, commonsense legislation that would help Ohio’s family caregivers who have a loved-one with Alzheimer’s Disease or other dementia. The bill would develop education and require training for first responders addressing difficult situations for individuals with dementia.

The bill will
- help develop and train the peace officers and specified emergency medical service personnel to recognize the key signs of Alzheimer’s and related dementia
- train peace officers and specified emergency medical service personnel to appropriately interact with persons living with dementia
- educate peace officers and specified emergency medical service personnel on how to best intervene in situations where these individuals may be at risk of abuse and neglect.
“The symptoms of dementia aren’t always consistent, or even easily recognizable. You know the ones providing care or have provided care for someone with dementia need all of the help and support they can get,” said Veronica McCreary Hall, a retired nurse, an AARP Ohio volunteer and former family caregiver for her father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. “Ohio’s first responders can play a critical role in keeping them safe and protected.”

There are an estimated 220,000 individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in Ohio, with a projection to see nearly a 20% increase in those living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias by 2030. 421,000 family caregivers bear the burden of the disease in Ohio, with 614 million hours of unpaid care.

“Mandatory training for first responders will help protect vulnerable Ohioans with Alzheimer’s Disease or other related dementia, while giving their families peace of mind,” said Holly Holtzen, state director for AARP Ohio. “Passing this legislation is a step in the right direction and could impact hundreds of thousands of lives.”

AARP Ohio also supports additional legislation that will benefit Ohioans and help keep them safe and secure.
- House Bill 305/Senate Bill 220
  This bipartisan bill would cap the price of insulin at no more than $35 for a 30-day supply.
- House Bill 461
  House Bill 461 will establish a private room per-day rate to be added to a facility’s daily Medicaid rate. Medicaid will pay facilities an additional reimbursement for each resident housed in a private room. Nursing facilities will be incentivized to offer single-occupancy rooms, ultimately increasing safety in nursing home residents.
- House Bill 625/Senate Bill 325
  The quality of resident care and nursing home operations and performance is often related to rates and reimbursements. AARP Ohio is urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would increase Medicaid rates in 2023 for nursing homes. The bill would also be a major benefit for nursing facilities, as incentive payments may be related to direct staff retention.
- House Bill 419
  Elder abuse is on the rise, yet it often goes unreported. AARP urges the passage of this legislation to ensure mandatory reports are filed.
Nov 23, 2022
Help spread the word, enrollment for health insurance coverage open through Jan. 15

A public Service Announcement from Interact for Health

Enrollment for health insurance coverage is now open! Greater Cincinnati residents who qualify for free or reduced-cost health insurance can select a plan on HealthCare.gov (Ohio and Indiana) or kynect.ky.gov (Kentucky).

People must enroll by Dec. 15 for coverage to begin on Jan. 1, 2023.

Open enrollment runs through Jan. 15 and is the only time to enroll in or change coverage in a federal or state health care marketplace plan, commonly referred to as Obamacare.

Free help selecting a plan is available on the Find Local Help page of HealthCare.gov and the Authorized Representatives, kynectors & Insurance Agents page of kynect.ky.gov. Users can enter their ZIP code for a list of agents/brokers and enrollment assistors in their area.

Nov 23, 2022
Our ability to get out our clipboards and defend the rights of everyday Ohioans is at risk!
An Emergency Appeal from the

League of Women Voters of Ohio

Ohioans have had the right to direct democracy since 1912, but now lawmakers and Secretary LaRose are going after the power of the people. Because of gerrymandering and dark money, Ohioans have faced years of unpopular and unjust legislation related to democracy, women’s reproductive rights, public education, and so much more.

Yesterday, Rep Brian Stewart and Secretary of State LaRose proposed a bill that would require a 60% yes vote to pass a citizen initiated constitutional amendment, while maintaining that constitutional amendments referred by the Legislature would still only require a simple majority vote to pass.

LaRose claims that this measure is necessary to protect the Ohio Constitution, and that the time is right. We say ABSOLUTELY NOT!
- Ohio citizens must already overcome extreme challenges to placing an issue on the ballot. The process requires hundreds of thousands of verified signatures and a strict geographical distribution across at least half of Ohio’s 88 counties.
- The process is not overused. In fact, since 1950, only ten out of 44 ballot measures have passed (23%). If so few citizen initiated amendments pass, what problem are we looking to solve?
- If this measure passes the Ohio Legislature, it will be on the ballot in May 2023; primary elections in odd numbered years have always historically had very low voter turnout. As little as 10% of the electorate will likely decide how Ohio citizens can practice direct democracy and affect change.
Send a message to your elected leaders and demand that they stop this threat to democracy!

More about the proposal to restrict access to Ohio Voters…

Ohio Republicans launch effort to make citizen-led amendments harder to pass…

Loveland Magazine – Nov 22, 2022
Nov 22, 2022
Ohio Republicans launch effort to make citizen-led amendments harder to pass for voters

Secretary of State Frank LaRose (speaking) alongside Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, introducing a constitutional amendment requiring a 60% supermajority for all future citizen-led ballot amendments. (Photo by Nick Evans, OCJ.)

Legislative Republican leaders also negotiating other changes, nix plan for automated voter registration

BY: NICK EVANS – Ohio Capital Journal

Lawmakers raised two ideas Thursday with massive implications for Ohio voters. One is an initiative requiring citizen-led constitutional amendments gain a 60% supermajority at the ballot for passage, the other is a House bill aimed at rewriting the underlying infrastructure of how the state conducts elections.

The amendment

State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, joined Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to introduce their plan to “safeguard Ohio’s constitution from special interests,” by proposing the supermajority for passage.

“We have repeatedly watched as special interests buy their way onto the statewide ballot and then spend millions of dollars drowning the airwaves to secure fundamental changes to our state by a vote margin of 50% plus one vote,” Stewart argued.

Their plan singles out the citizen-led process for amending the state constitution and raises the threshold for passage to 60%. The signature threshold for making the ballot would remain unchanged. LaRose argued lifting that benchmark would give the same interest groups a relative advantage.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. Official photo.

“If a special interest group can afford to pay, you know, million dollars to hire people with clipboards,” LaRose reasoned, “they can afford to pay a million and a half dollars to hire more people with more clipboards.”

The stakes are high for any groups whose ideas have fallen on deaf ears in Columbus. The prospects for abortion protection, recreational marijuana, minimum wage increases, gun violence prevention, or further redistricting reform provisions are effectively non-existent in the GOP-controlled Statehouse. LaRose and Stewart’s proposal would move the goal posts for any of those ideas.

The proposal itself, of course, will need to go to voters and get just 50% plus one to alter the Ohio Constitution. It will follow a different process, too. Stewart’s resolution would make the ballot through a General Assembly vote rather than the citizen signature-gathering process.

That lawmaker-led process won’t see any changes in the threshold for passage, either. LaRose and Stewart dismissed any suggestion their approach is unfair. Lawmakers have to meet a supermajority benchmark, too, they argued. It’s on “the front end” where they have to clear a 2/3 supermajority to make the ballot.

Under maps declared to be unconstitutional gerrymandering by a bipartisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, Ohio Republicans once again won rock-solid supermajorities in the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate last week.

LaRose and Stewart highlighted how 11 of 16 citizen-led amendments have failed since 2000, so it wasn’t clear exactly why they want to raise the bar higher as they also noted of the five measures that passed, three cleared 60% at the ballot box.

The legislation

Republican Ohio House Majority Leader Bill Seitz. Official photo.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, kicked off Thursday morning by proposing sweeping changes to an already sweeping elections bill. The biggest move involved nixing the automated voter registration language contained in the initial proposal.

Those provisions would’ve leaned heavily on the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to help voters register or update their registration any time they interact with the agency. If voters’ registration is regularly updated, the thinking goes, there will be fewer names to purge. But Seitz said after months of negotiations, the Ohio Senate hasn’t budged.

“If we’re going to get anything done,” Sietz said, “we’ve got to have an agreement between two chambers, and the Senate does not yet feel comfortable with automated voter registration, even though I am comfortable with it.”

“But it takes two to tango as they say,” he added with a wry chuckle.

Among other changes, voters would be able to request absentee ballots online, but they’d have to submit paper requests on a specific form. The deadline for requesting one would be seven days before an election. The bill trims the deadline for absentee ballots to arrive post-election to seven days as well.

Drop boxes would be available for the duration of early voting, but they’d be restricted — no more than three, all on board of elections premises and under 24/7 video surveillance.

The bill eliminates the final day of early voting but distributes those hours in the week prior by extending weekday hours.

Seitz also dropped a number of ID provisions from the original bill. He noted Senate legislation plans to offer free photo-ID to anyone — not just poor Ohioans as his bill envisioned.

“They can be, you know, Leslie Wexner or Carlin Lindner III and they could still get a free photo ID,” he quipped referencing the founder of The Limited and the co-CEO of American Financial Group.

Pushback

A slew of press releases were released Thursday afternoon from good government groups and voters rights organizations slamming the Stewart and LaRose proposal to increase the passage threshold for citizen-initiated amendments.

As for the Seitz proposal, voting rights advocates applauded the inclusion of online ballot requests and funding for electronic poll books. But League of Women Voters of Ohio Director Jen Miller warned the proposal would make elections “more complicated, expensive and inefficient.”

She urged lawmakers to expand in person voting hours during the final weekend of early voting. Miller argued boards will get more bang for their buck expanding weekend voting compared to tacking on extra early morning hours during the week.

Miller also pushed them to reconsider the automated voter registration they’d just removed. She argued 22 other states have similar policies including West Virginia, Georgia and Michigan.

“It removes barriers to registration, but it also helps every voter because the accuracy of voter rolls are improved and it can reduce administrative costs for the boards of elections,” Miller explained. “And we reduce our provisional ballot counts which are typically very high in Ohio.”

Miller returned to the idea of excessive provisional ballots in a discussion of stricter voter ID requirements.

“When someone votes provisionally, which of course we support, that actually takes away all workers from the process,” Miller explained. “It increases lines, and it also increases a lot of post-election work for boards of elections. So we think that the system as is works.”

Speaking afterward, Seitz rejected out of hand the idea that more stringent voter ID requirements could increase the number of provisional ballots cast.

“I don’t buy that at all, that’s crap,” he said, “look at everything you need a photo ID for in life, okay?”

Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

Nov 22, 2022