Election Integrity and Political Integrity

The race for a May or even June primary at this point hurts the integrity of the process. It is time to put emotion aside and help Republicans with an August primary.

While a game is being played in Columbus with the future of Ohio - what will happen if the Ohio legislature does not act is to disenfranchise all Ohioans by giving them very little time to meet and vet the candidates that will represent them and learn the boundaries of their new districts. We are all left in perpetual suspense - and there is not a Republican leader in the legislature that will do what is right - and move the primary to a much later date - so the process is not tainted by politics.

Fair and honest does not seem to be in the lexicon with those Republicans singularly focused on Eric Holder and the effort by Democrats to cause turmoil and disrupt the system. No Republican likes what is happening - but now is not the time to let your pride make it worse. It is the Ohio legal system, anyone that has dealt with it - knows it sucks - now legislators have to deal with what us peons have dealt with for years. It is time to come to realize some hard truths - if we rush the process we will have bad results and because the legislature refused to deal with redistricting years ago - we got what we got. Even though viable solutions that eliminate this bickering every 10 years have been presented. The wizards of smart aren’t looking so smart now! All of the Juris Doctorates have been reduced to two-year-olds arguing in a sandbox.

By all means let’s continue to futilely call the Democrats names and cry about Eric Holder - rather than do what we need to do to preserve the integrity of the system and provide enough time for people to meet candidates and learn about their candidates and allow Republican candidate enough time to plan and strategize.

Again - if the legislature was not so short-sighted and had a legitimate leader that could have seen this coming 5 years ago - we would not be where we are at. Unfortunately, the Ohio Republican State Central Committee is totally inept and they could have foreseen that Democrats would move heaven and earth to use the redistricting process to their advantage.

If the Ohio primary does not happen in May it is not the end of the world. For those that are saying it will do irreparable harm to the party by extending a divisive primary and not allow enough preparation for the general election - have not really had a healthy dose of reality.

Currently, a whole host of election officials around the State of Ohio say that a full May primary is impossible without compromising election integrity. Those messages are coming from both Republican and Democrat. They are saying that the election will not be accurate or secure if the election is held in May.

There are some calls to split the primary and vote on the Senate Race and all Statewide races as soon as possible because they do not involve redistricting. That would be a U.S. Senate race, the Governor’s race, State Treasurer, State Auditor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General. This could cost as much as $20-$30 million more than the alternative of not splitting the election. Ohio Republican leadership wants to keep the May Primary for the Statewide races and have a June primary for all the races where redistricting has to be ironed out.

It is the end of March and we most-likely won’t have districts until (with the most wishful of thinking) sometime in April at the earliest. Many of these districts have changed multiple times. These aren’t just U.S. Congressional districts they are State House and Senate districts as well.

Many we have talked to in the Ohio legislature says there is a push to move to a June primary. The longer they wait to make a decision - the longer candidates have to wait to make decisions on where to spend money and make plans to run their race. These district have changed significantly over the the months of redistricting. Signatures on petitions for candidacy will more than likely not be from people who live in the district.

We need to do this right and not do it half-assed and in a confusing fashion. If we were to set the primary in Mid-June and let’s say that we get districts hammered out by mid-April, that leaves 60 days to educate the public of the new districts and introduce them to potentially many new candidates - when others had been advertising in the old districts. If we set the date in August, it will allow us to rest the deadline for filing - allow candidates to collect signatures for their petitions from their real districts and will give the public 120 days to learn their districts and get to know the candidates in those races with districts.

1 State with a March primary

• Texas

12 States with a May primary:

• Alabama

• Arkansas

• Georgia

• Idaho

• Indiana

• Kentucky

• Nebraska

• North Carolina

• Ohio

• Oregon

• Pennsylvania

• West Virginia

18 States with an August/September primaries

• Alaska

• Arizona

• Connecticut

• Delaware

• Florida

• Hawaii

• Kansas

• Massachusetts

• Michigan

• Minnesota

• Missouri

• New Hampshire

• Rhode Island

• Tennessee

• Vermont

• Washington

• Wisconsin

• Wyoming

19 States with June/July primaries

• California

• Colorado

• District of Columbia

• Illinois

• Iowa

• Maine

• Maryland

• Mississippi

• Montana

• Nevada

• New Jersey

• New Mexico

• New York

• North Dakota

• Oklahoma

• South Carolina

• South Dakota

• Utah

• Virginia

1 State with a November primary

• Louisiana