What's Good with Election Protection

[00:00:14] What's Good Ohio? I'm your host James Hayes and this is the What's Good Ohio podcast where we talk to the activists, organizers, visionaries, and good troublemakers coming together to make our state better for everyone. No exceptions. As always, I'm joined by Sarah Rodenberg from Policy Matters Ohio. What's good, Sarah?

[00:00:33] Hi, James. It is good to see you. We have a lot going on at Policy Matters. Most recently, we just released our great tax shift paper, which is a great piece about how

[00:00:44] the rich pay less in taxes, the lower earners pay more in taxes, and every time that our government gets the chance to do so, they make that more extreme. So that's available on our website and also will be in the show notes here. We also have a budget pitch meeting that we're hosting tomorrow where we're going to have a bunch of different organizations across the state coming together to learn about lobbying and talking to your lawmakers to get what you want into the budget, which we are barely

[00:01:14] battling towards by the day. Election happens and then we're right into budget. Lame duck that budget, I guess. Well, let's get it with Ohio Voice, James.

[00:01:23] A bunch of stuff going on at Ohio Voice. We're in the thick of the election cycle where voting has started. Make sure you get out there and cast your ballot either on election day or before. And then we've also been working with our partners to respond to the heinous lies and hateful rhetoric that has been aimed at Springfield, Ohio.

[00:01:43] And the Haitian community there and the Haitian community there and our immigrant communities across our state. Coming out of the presidential debate, we saw that hateful rhetoric and those lies and conspiracies lead to true intimidation, threats.

[00:01:55] And we saw how the community came together to protect one another and support one another and lots of support coming into Springfield.

[00:02:02] But we work with some of our partners on trying to have a narrative intervention, making sure that we're on social media, having digital actions, trying to create organic movement with Ohioans saying this doesn't represent us.

[00:02:16] You know, you can't say this about Ohioans who live here, who've come here, who work here, who are raising their families here.

[00:02:24] You know, we all do better when we all do better. And we're standing up against this hate as folks are trying to divide us and turn us against one another, as they always do.

[00:02:33] Every election cycle throughout history, divide and conquer, divide and conquer.

[00:02:37] So it's been a lot of fun, you know, seeing folks post videos and memes and try to fight back against that.

[00:02:44] As we say, oh, no, you don't to those hateful racists who want to try to divide us against one another.

[00:02:50] It's a pun. The O is an O-H. I had to read it to understand that.

[00:02:56] Oh, no, you don't. It's a little drop in the bucket in terms of what we need to do to really build the inclusive community, the inclusive Ohio that we want.

[00:03:05] But it's something our partners are doing.

[00:03:07] Fits in with the conversation we're having today about how do we do election protection and expand access to our democracy and make sure that folks are feeling safe and comfortable as they go into voting this season.

[00:03:22] Heck yeah.

[00:03:35] The Ohio Voter Rights Coalition, which Ohio Voice helps staff, the nonpartisan coalition of voter advocates dedicated to ensuring that our elections are modern, secure and accessible to all Ohioans.

[00:03:47] OVRC runs the election protection program in the state to help every Ohio voter make sure that their voice is heard at the ballot box.

[00:03:54] To talk about what's good with election protection, we're joined by Kayla Griffin, the state director for All Voting is Local and a leader in the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition.

[00:04:02] Reverend Joan Van Besselier, the founder of Peacekeepers of the Polls and a retired Unitarian Universalist pastor.

[00:04:08] And Melissa Pertala, the election protection regional lead in Lucas County.

[00:04:13] Welcome, everyone.

[00:04:14] Great to be here.

[00:04:15] Thanks for having me.

[00:04:16] Thank you.

[00:04:17] To start off, let's just have everyone will go around.

[00:04:20] Tell us a little bit about yourselves, what you do and what brought you into the world of election protection.

[00:04:26] And we can start with Kayla.

[00:04:28] Thank you, Sarah.

[00:04:29] I'm Kayla Griffin.

[00:04:30] I am the state director for All Voting is Local Ohio.

[00:04:34] I've been in this role for about just over 40 years now.

[00:04:37] So this was my second presidential campaign during election administration specifically.

[00:04:42] But I've been doing election protection for about 10 years now.

[00:04:48] I've done phone banking.

[00:04:50] I've done poll monitoring.

[00:04:52] So I'm very much acclimated to the on-the-ground, boots-on-the-ground work.

[00:04:56] And it's definitely a difference coming into the election administration, being an advocate for voters and making sure that election officials and elected officials are hearing the voice of the people and not erecting barriers to the ballots.

[00:05:13] We want to make sure that everyone has equal access to the ballot here in Ohio.

[00:05:17] Excellent.

[00:05:18] Reverend Joan, you want to go now?

[00:05:19] Sure.

[00:05:20] My teaching partner, Reverend Susan Smith, and I have been working with peacekeeping and nonviolent resistance de-escalation now for about seven years.

[00:05:34] And Susan worked with it for many years before that.

[00:05:36] And we started training peacekeepers for the Poor People's Campaign.

[00:05:41] Peacekeepers at that point were there when folk were doing marching or having a protest or a press conference.

[00:05:50] And the peacekeepers were there to help if there were hecklers or hasslers, right?

[00:05:55] Well, come the 2020 election, as we were leading into it, Susan and I saw that tensions were rising.

[00:06:04] There was much more divisive anxiety in the culture.

[00:06:08] And we thought that we could take our peacekeeping tactics that we learned for the Poor People's Campaign and apply it to folk that would go to the polls.

[00:06:18] So since 2020, we have been training clergy and social workers and teachers and counselors and lay leaders across the state in how to be a peacekeeper at the polls to provide a ministry of presence and a calming influence and de-escalate potential conflicts using the methods from the civil rights movement and practical support to voters and a lot of pastoral care.

[00:06:47] So we've been doing that now for all of the special elections and midterm elections.

[00:06:52] And now we're gearing up for 2024 in a major way.

[00:06:56] Excellent.

[00:06:57] Melissa?

[00:06:58] I'm Melissa Portella from Toledo, Lucas County.

[00:07:01] I'm a regional lead here.

[00:07:03] And I have been a lead for, I think, three cycles now, three or four.

[00:07:10] It's confusing to me.

[00:07:11] But I realized a while ago that I was a volunteer for election protection, wearing the tunic with the numbers.

[00:07:20] And that must have been maybe 10 years ago.

[00:07:23] And I did it a couple of times.

[00:07:25] It wasn't until Courtney from Ohio Voice pulled me in and asked me to be a regional lead that I started to really get involved with the volunteer aspect of it, running, recruiting, and managing the volunteers that do go to the polls and assist voters of every stripe.

[00:07:45] But it doesn't matter.

[00:07:46] We are there to help people vote and make it easy for them and hopefully not have to deescalate and call Joan.

[00:07:53] But if we do, we will.

[00:07:56] You can back us up.

[00:07:57] We appreciate it.

[00:07:58] Thank you.

[00:07:59] Awesome.

[00:08:00] It's so great to meet all of you.

[00:08:02] I've known Kayla and Joan for some time, but Melissa, it's great to meet you.

[00:08:06] I've heard a lot about the work that you've done with the program.

[00:08:09] I talk with Courtney a lot.

[00:08:11] And so it's great to put a face with the name.

[00:08:13] But to start us off, Kayla, I was wondering if you could just explain for our listeners a little bit more about what election protection is.

[00:08:21] What does that mean?

[00:08:22] And what is OVRC's role in it?

[00:08:25] So election protection is the apparatus that we engage volunteers on the ground to really be the eyes and ears to ensure that elections are running smoothly all across our state.

[00:08:38] It doesn't just happen in Ohio.

[00:08:39] It is happening across the nation.

[00:08:41] And we are plugged into a very intricate apparatus when election season comes.

[00:08:49] So within our election protection sphere, we have our poll monitors.

[00:08:54] These are the people that we train and we ask them to go out maybe two to four hours a day.

[00:09:00] They can be rovers or they can be stationed at a polling location.

[00:09:03] But we're often looking at the polling locations that have had high traffic issues, that have had high calls in the past.

[00:09:11] Maybe they've run out of ballots before.

[00:09:13] Maybe they've had very long lines, particularly in black and brown neighborhoods.

[00:09:17] Maybe they've had threats or things that have come up at those polling locations before.

[00:09:23] So we'll map those out and we'll assign poll monitors.

[00:09:28] And we'll talk to the regional leads like Melissa and tell them, like, hey, these are the high priority ones.

[00:09:33] We really want to make sure that there are people on the ground there.

[00:09:35] That is what's happening on the ground in early voting and on election day.

[00:09:40] And then we also have our behind the scenes.

[00:09:43] We have a command center where we are looking at tickets that are coming in.

[00:09:48] So typically we try to flood our communities with the 1-866-OUR-VOTE number.

[00:09:55] 1-866-OUR-VOTE is the hotline that people can call.

[00:09:59] They will reach the lawyers committee and they have trained volunteers on that end who are fielding calls.

[00:10:05] They put that ticket number into the computer system and we get them right in our command center.

[00:10:10] Now, because of COVID since 2020, we've been virtual.

[00:10:14] So we have a virtual command center.

[00:10:15] So we have people all across the state who are logged onto their computers.

[00:10:18] They're in the back end of the process.

[00:10:20] We're seeing tickets.

[00:10:22] We're talking to each other on Slack and Signal.

[00:10:24] We're talking to Angela, who's over at Ohio Voice and Common Cause monitoring the social media.

[00:10:31] We are trying to get all eyes across the state to understand what is happening.

[00:10:35] And then we'll reach out to whether it's Reverend John or whether it's Melissa or a regional lead to let them know, hey, something is happening in this community or at this polling location.

[00:10:46] Can you make sure that somebody is over there?

[00:10:48] Can you make sure that a poll monitor is there or a peacekeeper is there so that we can either deescalate or get some more information?

[00:10:56] That is the broad scheme of the election protection peacekeeper apparatus.

[00:11:03] The other thing that really is critical to our work is doing an audit after the elections and looking at what are the calls that are coming in?

[00:11:13] What locations do we have issues?

[00:11:15] How quickly were we able to troubleshoot?

[00:11:17] Are there things that we need to talk to the board of elections or the state about to make sure that we're not seeing those issues again?

[00:11:25] So we are really a nonpartisan.

[00:11:29] We don't choose sides.

[00:11:31] We are all volunteers.

[00:11:32] The only thing we want to make sure is that voters have a good process when they go to vote, that they are not running up against major hiccups, that we're able to get their questions resolved,

[00:11:44] that we're able to walk them through the process.

[00:11:46] And at the end of the day, everyone who wants to vote is able to vote.

[00:11:51] Absolutely.

[00:11:51] Oh, that's such a great answer.

[00:11:52] And going off of Kayla's answer here, Melissa, the election protection program depends heavily on volunteers, as she just mentioned,

[00:12:01] across the entire state to be eyes and ears on the ground.

[00:12:04] And that's where those poll monitors come in.

[00:12:06] What are some trends that you've noticed as you've poll monitored or spoken to other poll monitors,

[00:12:11] especially, you know, in more recent years?

[00:12:14] And what role do you play in assisting voters and such?

[00:12:17] Well, I have my own command center.

[00:12:20] That's the way I do it.

[00:12:21] I will be at my computer.

[00:12:25] I will have my teams out and they'll all be linked together through text chat each different morning,

[00:12:34] then the afternoon shift, then the evening shift, so that we can all be talking to each other

[00:12:39] and seeing what's going on in real time with that.

[00:12:42] As far as trends go, I don't really see a trend.

[00:12:47] Like, things aren't getting worse.

[00:12:48] They aren't getting better.

[00:12:50] Since I'm getting more experienced, I know better how to handle things.

[00:12:54] I know what to expect, what's going on.

[00:12:56] The most common thing is that people are upset when they think that lit slingers,

[00:13:02] and those are people that are partisan, that are handing out their own lit,

[00:13:06] are too close to the polling location.

[00:13:10] And they're like, you're not allowed to be this close.

[00:13:13] But sometimes the polling locations do not put their flags or their signs in the proper place.

[00:13:19] They put them too far out.

[00:13:21] And the lit slingers actually know the distance.

[00:13:24] So they're not actually breaking the rule, but some of the voters will think that the rules are being broken

[00:13:31] and they want that fixed.

[00:13:33] And so we are able to explain that to them.

[00:13:37] We are able to talk to them and probably get the flags moved if we can, things like that.

[00:13:42] And I think the other great service that we provide is to be able to listen to voters

[00:13:48] if they have any kind of issue, whether they are right or wrong.

[00:13:53] They come out and they want to tell someone what happened that has gone on in there.

[00:14:01] The voter themselves may be at fault, but that doesn't matter.

[00:14:06] The voter will be upset.

[00:14:07] So if they are able to talk to somebody and feel heard,

[00:14:11] and we can make a report and put their concerns down and tell them,

[00:14:15] yes, maybe they violated a rule, they had an expired driver's license or something,

[00:14:21] they're going to get heard.

[00:14:23] They're going to be explained how to fix that, the timing for that.

[00:14:28] And then we're also going to report that back up, that those were issues

[00:14:31] that maybe we can all look at together to eventually advocate for change.

[00:14:37] Yes, for sure.

[00:14:38] Yeah, there's so many little details on Election Day

[00:14:41] that hopefully don't add up to big problems.

[00:14:44] The Reverend Joan, we know that those big problems might be there

[00:14:48] and there's always a threat.

[00:14:49] So I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about the Peacekeepers Program

[00:14:52] and what do you see when you're deployed during the early vote period?

[00:14:56] And I know you all have been running this program for a couple of years now.

[00:14:59] What is Election Day like for you all?

[00:15:01] Well, Election Day is usually pretty calm,

[00:15:04] but the early voting is when a lot of our folk get called into this.

[00:15:09] And we actually deploy Peacekeepers much like the poll monitors are deployed.

[00:15:15] We look at the history and try to, you know, on Election Day,

[00:15:19] several polling places that come together and our Peacekeepers will patrol those.

[00:15:24] But they're always there at the boards of election during the early voting weekends.

[00:15:31] And we have seen a number of things over the years that have really tried our faith.

[00:15:39] So, you know, we say to the Peacekeepers,

[00:15:43] this is no time for a casual or a timid faith.

[00:15:46] They have to show courage sometimes in the face of people who are heckling or hassling

[00:15:52] or might even be violent.

[00:15:55] They bring their caring skills.

[00:15:56] They bring their understanding of human nature.

[00:15:59] They bring their pastoral care skills to talk with people that are upset,

[00:16:04] maybe by provisional voting or other confusions.

[00:16:08] But one of the ways that they are very useful is when there are situations that are not normal,

[00:16:17] such as a large truck with all kinds of signs, blaring music and guns hanging,

[00:16:25] you know, like Christmas tree ornaments from the thing,

[00:16:28] pulling up right in front of the drop box at a county.

[00:16:33] Okay.

[00:16:33] And so the Peacekeeper, seeing that this was really causing folk to turn away from the drop box during early voting,

[00:16:42] did talk with them and was able to actually have the truck move

[00:16:45] and see that they were violating their own principles of fair and open elections.

[00:16:52] So that kind of thing.

[00:16:53] Or we've had to intervene when somebody was out there at the line trying to persuade voters to leave,

[00:17:01] trying to suppress the vote by saying, you know, where's your ID?

[00:17:06] Are you sure you're a citizen?

[00:17:08] Show me your papers.

[00:17:09] And our peacekeepers are there to tell the people in line,

[00:17:13] no, they can't do that to you.

[00:17:15] And then talking with the folk that were asking for that information,

[00:17:19] once again, appealing to their better angels doesn't always work.

[00:17:23] But we try to appeal to their better angels and their common cause of a free and fair election when that works.

[00:17:31] And sometimes it doesn't.

[00:17:33] But we've stopped fights.

[00:17:34] We've stopped people who are going at each other because they were tired and hungry and cranky.

[00:17:38] And somebody stepped on somebody's foot.

[00:17:41] That kind of thing happens quite a bit, too, during the long, long lines.

[00:17:46] And we do talk with people quite a bit in long lines to just hear them out so that they know that they're heard

[00:17:52] and they know that somebody will be, you know, there with them,

[00:17:56] even though the wait is long and the weather may be crappy.

[00:18:00] So, you know, we've come across a lot of different things.

[00:18:04] And now we're gearing up for spring.

[00:18:05] And some issues to happen there during the early vote and on election day.

[00:18:11] So we're gearing up folks for that.

[00:18:13] Excellent.

[00:18:14] Wow.

[00:18:14] Really, a lot of hats that people have to wear and be prepared for, like, the threat of guns.

[00:18:20] Or just like you said, like, people are hungry and standing out in the sun without, you know, for hours.

[00:18:26] That's really excellent.

[00:18:28] And we do train our folk to look for possible active shooters, what to look for, what are the warning signs.

[00:18:36] I mean, in an open carry state, you've got to be really careful.

[00:18:39] But that's part of our training, too.

[00:18:42] Also very, very good, especially with every new mass shooting.

[00:18:46] All right, Melissa.

[00:18:48] So you have a robust volunteer network, which you talked about.

[00:18:51] You're basically your own hub on election day.

[00:18:54] How are you mobilizing your voter advocates this year?

[00:18:58] Or, like, how have you been going about getting people involved in election protection?

[00:19:03] And also, why is it so important to have this nonpartisan role?

[00:19:07] Well, voting is the foundation.

[00:19:09] It's the core.

[00:19:10] It's like the basic level of protecting our democracy.

[00:19:14] That is, like, if you're doing nothing else, voting, everything rides on top of that.

[00:19:21] So my volunteers, the fact that this is bipartisan is very heartwarming to a lot of the volunteers.

[00:19:28] They like not having to advocate for one side or the other.

[00:19:32] They are just out there to help people.

[00:19:35] And helping people is very gratifying.

[00:19:38] It makes you feel good.

[00:19:40] It is very difficult to go out.

[00:19:42] And if you're persuading on one side or the other of an issue, that can be very intense.

[00:19:48] But if you're just out there to help somebody, help them vote, the core democracy, that's

[00:19:54] very uplifting.

[00:19:55] So a lot of people get involved with us for that reason.

[00:19:59] And I like to make it fun.

[00:20:02] Like, if you don't bring the fun, it's not sustainable.

[00:20:07] So I like to have social occasions where we'll get together, discuss things.

[00:20:13] It's like a church.

[00:20:15] I call it almost like a democracy church, right?

[00:20:18] We're in service to something greater than ourselves.

[00:20:21] And we come together for that purpose.

[00:20:23] But you make it interesting and fun.

[00:20:26] So that is how I mobilize them and keep them coming back for more.

[00:20:31] Because sometimes we are out there standing in the rain.

[00:20:35] It's just pouring down rain on them.

[00:20:37] We just, what the heck?

[00:20:37] We just give up and just stand there and get soaked.

[00:20:40] You know?

[00:20:40] And we just keep on helping people.

[00:20:42] That's early vote.

[00:20:43] I can be outside on early vote.

[00:20:45] On election day, I'm at my hub.

[00:20:48] But I'll go out and do a lot of shifts myself for early vote with my people.

[00:20:53] But one of the things, too, is sometimes it's boring.

[00:20:57] And I've had a couple volunteers say, you don't need me.

[00:21:00] Nothing happened.

[00:21:01] I'm like, that is what we want.

[00:21:03] You want it to be boring.

[00:21:05] I want nothing to happen.

[00:21:06] You go out there.

[00:21:08] You look at the lines.

[00:21:09] You look at what's happening.

[00:21:11] You report back nothing's going on.

[00:21:13] And that's what we want to see.

[00:21:16] If we don't have people out there saying everything's going smoothly, it's the same thing.

[00:21:22] We don't know if it's going wrong.

[00:21:23] We don't know if it's going right.

[00:21:25] We want to know both.

[00:21:26] And I want them to understand that boring is what we're actually shooting for.

[00:21:31] You know?

[00:21:32] That's a really successful election.

[00:21:34] Super boring.

[00:21:35] We'll have fun afterwards celebrating how smoothly it all went.

[00:21:39] No, that's absolutely right.

[00:21:40] It's often the most important work is the slow grind, which is documenting what's actually happening.

[00:21:47] It doesn't always feel as glamorous, but it adds up to a lot.

[00:21:51] Joan, yeah, you wanted to say something on that?

[00:21:52] Let's go piggyback off of that.

[00:21:54] Because I did ask some of our peacekeepers to give me a little quote about why they do what they do.

[00:22:00] Because we are a ministry of presence.

[00:22:03] And yes, boring is good.

[00:22:06] But a couple of our folk sent me statements.

[00:22:09] And one of them is, when I was outside the polling place, he said, in my suit and my stole and my peacekeeper hat and button, many people smiled at me.

[00:22:20] I could feel them relax a little bit.

[00:22:23] Voters have a right to a stress-free experience.

[00:22:26] And I was doing my part to make it so.

[00:22:30] That was one of our folk from Montgomery County.

[00:22:33] Another one says that I became a peacekeeper because it fills a unique and needed role.

[00:22:39] I see myself as being prayerfully attentive to the dynamics of a polling location available to deescalate conflict and better enable all voters to cast their ballot in a civil environment.

[00:22:52] It's one of our folk in Franklin County.

[00:22:54] And just another short one here from Lucas County.

[00:22:58] I appreciate the freedom to use my pastoral care skills as I see fit, undergirded by our thorough training and the support system that's available to us while we're working.

[00:23:10] That includes all of the election protection people.

[00:23:13] That's the support system.

[00:23:15] For me, she says, serving as a peacekeeper is a ministry of presence.

[00:23:19] Thank you so much for sharing those reflections.

[00:23:24] And, yeah, it makes me think about how so much of this is about there's always questions about the process of democracy and whether somebody could cast a ballot or not.

[00:23:32] But there's also the feeling of it.

[00:23:34] You know, do you feel safe?

[00:23:35] Do you feel comfortable?

[00:23:37] Do you feel listened to?

[00:23:38] I don't think anyone would say it would feel like democracy if you remove those things from the process.

[00:23:44] So it's so important, the work that y'all are doing to provide that experience.

[00:23:49] Kayla, I want to turn to you because we know that there's going to be a big turnout this year.

[00:24:09] And especially coming off of what we saw with January 6th a few years ago and how many of those participants are from Ohio.

[00:24:16] There's always the possibility for political violence.

[00:24:19] And we obviously hope everything goes smoothly and is boring and everyone has a safe and pleasant voting experience.

[00:24:25] But we have to be prepared for any situation.

[00:24:27] So I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about how the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition is preparing for anything that might come up leading up to this election and afterwards.

[00:24:35] You know, right before I jumped on this call, I was on a call with our national partners at Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights.

[00:24:45] And we were talking about political violence and the insurgence that we are seeing on the ground.

[00:24:52] There was a researcher on the call who said they do focus groups two to four times a week.

[00:24:58] And prior to January 6th, political violence was not top of mind for folks engaging in democracy or just thinking about going to vote, planning to go to vote.

[00:25:10] But now, she said, in every focus group, political violence post-January 6th is something that is kind of embedded in our thought process and how we plan for our election plan.

[00:25:23] And so we're telling people, particularly at the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition, the first thing is that you have to make a plan.

[00:25:32] You should make your own individual personalized voter plan for how you're going to engage.

[00:25:38] Some people do not want to engage and go to the polls.

[00:25:42] Some people don't want to go to the polls on Election Day.

[00:25:45] And so we want people to know and feel empowered that they have options and they have the opportunity to choose how they will engage with the ballot.

[00:25:56] If they want to vote from the comfort of their home, we absolutely support that and we will help you do that.

[00:26:03] The other thing that we are engaging with is talking to our election officials and the people who run the boards.

[00:26:10] All of the boards in the state of Ohio, they are mandated to have an election administration plan.

[00:26:17] They have to do this well ahead of our election.

[00:26:21] And so there are contingency plans that they are operating out of.

[00:26:26] There are scenarios that are in there to mitigate any harm.

[00:26:29] They are thinking about what happens if they get threats or if there is something that jumps off, whether it is a natural disaster or it's man-made.

[00:26:39] And so we know that our counties are also preparing for this.

[00:26:43] One of the things that we have started to push around is like helpful memos for the election officials.

[00:26:49] A lot of our election officials are new.

[00:26:51] This is their first major election.

[00:26:54] We've had back-to-back elections for the last three years now from 2020, 2023, 2024.

[00:27:00] And so it's been full steam of head.

[00:27:03] But a lot of folks, this will be the first time that they have something on this magnitude.

[00:27:06] So we are producing memos for them with one-pagers to help them understand and quickly identify this is what the law says.

[00:27:15] This is what we can and cannot do.

[00:27:17] That covers things like mass challenges.

[00:27:20] That covers things like poll monitors, observers, what the poll workers can do.

[00:27:25] So we give them like a good little cheat sheet so that they can have it and they don't have to bust through the whole election manual.

[00:27:33] The manual is probably 1,000 pages.

[00:27:36] But we are producing information so that they can quickly have it at their ready.

[00:27:41] One of the things that is difficult that we would like to do that I want to highlight is it would be super helpful if we were able to partner with our boards of elections and come in and help produce poll worker trainings or come in on poll worker trainings.

[00:27:56] But we cannot do that anymore because back in 2021, the state passed what we call the collaboration ban.

[00:28:05] The collaboration ban says that election officials, people who work for the government, they cannot collaborate with or accept private donations from non-governmental officials.

[00:28:17] So that means that they can't accept outside money to help stand up elections if necessary.

[00:28:24] Where we have seen grant money come in to other states, the state of Ohio can no longer accept those funds if they need that for PPP or hiring additional poll workers.

[00:28:34] And on the other side, they can't accept any opportunity to collaborate with non-governmental officials.

[00:28:42] So where we would be able to come in or bring in some of our partners, we've worked with great partners like Verify Vote, who helps us with polling equipment and helping people be educated on the post-election process.

[00:28:54] We aren't able to come in and do that, but we can direct and steer folks to these outside resources so that they can utilize them and integrate that into their system.

[00:29:03] That's something that we hope will change in the near future.

[00:29:06] But that's what we have been thinking about and trying to position ourselves as helpful advocates for our elected officials and election officials.

[00:29:14] That is so interesting. I was not aware of that law change.

[00:29:18] What's the intent? I mean, obviously they can't say that, but is it very clearly?

[00:29:23] And like, you know, disenfranchisement?

[00:29:26] I think it's funny when we talk about some of the law changes that happen in the state of Ohio.

[00:29:31] We have some really insidious rules and regulations around democracy and laws, and it tends not to get a lot of attention, probably because we're not Georgia or Texas.

[00:29:43] And it's like it's not sexy. And I'm like, Ohio has been disenfranchising people for a long time.

[00:29:49] So when it comes to the collaboration ban, that was actually passed in the summer of 2021, and it was inserted in a budget.

[00:29:58] So there was no opportunity for advocates to go down to the statehouse and advocate against it.

[00:30:04] There was no opportunity for us to talk to lawmakers and tell them that they shouldn't do it.

[00:30:09] It was inserted in the budget.

[00:30:11] We petitioned our governor, Mike DeWine, to strike it and do a line item veto.

[00:30:17] He did not do it.

[00:30:18] And so since then, we have seen that election officials have been very leery about doing things in a collaborative manner with non-governmental officials.

[00:30:29] It does not impede on the regular duties of their jobs.

[00:30:33] So if they're going out and recruiting poll workers or they're going out and doing voter registration drives and things like that, they are still able to do that.

[00:30:41] But what they cannot do is explicitly have a group come in and do some type of training for poll workers.

[00:30:48] They can't do the explicit collaboration because what the law does, it actually criminalizes our election officials in that capacity.

[00:30:57] It starts off as a misdemeanor, but if they are charged with it twice, it becomes a felony.

[00:31:03] What we are grateful for is that we have not seen any of our prosecutors across the state actually utilizing this law.

[00:31:11] And I think that's a hat tip to like the state of democracy.

[00:31:15] But I do think that it was passed with clear intentions because when outside money and resources came in to the state of Ohio in 2020, our folks down in Columbus, the people who make the laws, they push this narrative that Democratic counties got money in order to put on the election.

[00:31:38] And that just was not true.

[00:31:39] Counties all across the state, small, large, urban, rural, they receive money if they had just applied for the grant.

[00:31:47] And a lot of them did.

[00:31:49] There was millions of dollars that came into the state of Ohio.

[00:31:52] And might I remind listeners that this was during a global pandemic.

[00:31:57] This was during a time where our polling locations were not equipped for distancing, social distancing.

[00:32:04] We did not have the requisite infrastructure for PPP and having dividers up.

[00:32:10] And so a lot of that money was utilized so that we could put stickers on the ground so that we can get hand sanitizers, so that we can get plastic shields up so that when people are coming in, the people who are there administering elections actually felt safe in doing so.

[00:32:26] It was utilized to hire more staff so that the senior citizens that had been working the polls for the last 10, 20 years who did not feel comfortable coming out in a global pandemic, that they can stay at home and we can actually recruit and spend money on advertisement and recruit younger generations to come in and work the polls.

[00:32:48] That was what that money went to, but it was really demonized and elected officials, the ones who make the laws, the lawmakers.

[00:32:56] They were the ones that were really pushing this narrative and they pushed it through during the budget process that did not give us opportunity to really fight against it.

[00:33:04] We love to sneak things into the budget.

[00:33:07] Yeah, Joan?

[00:33:08] It impacted some of our plans around peacekeeping too, because we were gearing up to offer trainings to some of the poll workers as they gathered in the de-escalation techniques so that they would feel less stressed and less hassled as they did their job.

[00:33:28] And they would also know what to look for in case there was somebody who had violence as a potential.

[00:33:34] But we couldn't do it because that, once again, we're an outside organization.

[00:33:42] Wow.

[00:33:43] That is just absolutely insane, especially it being so recent as well.

[00:33:48] That is very interesting.

[00:33:50] Well, and on the note of political violence, recently Springfield, Ohio has been in the news.

[00:33:56] I am sure that all of our jobs have had conversations about the lies that were spread about the communities there and the focus that's been put on them.

[00:34:07] There has been numerous bomb threats and an influx of just general harassment.

[00:34:13] And Reverend Joan, you were talking earlier about how the peacekeepers are playing a role in de-escalating at the polls and also in this situation in Springfield.

[00:34:23] How are you connecting with leaders in Springfield and community members to support them?

[00:34:28] And what has been going on with that?

[00:34:30] Well, our connections are through the networks of clergy.

[00:34:33] Obviously, that's what we do, who we are.

[00:34:37] And one of our major networks has been a very large Baptist church that serves both Springfield and Dayton.

[00:34:44] And so we've been doing trainings, you know, in all the major population centers like, you know, Columbus and Cincinnati, etc.

[00:34:53] But we had a special call to do at this large congregation.

[00:34:58] And they were pulling from their networks to invite clergy, counselors, teachers.

[00:35:04] Teachers are great, by the way.

[00:35:05] And all these people to come together so that we could train them to be peacekeepers.

[00:35:11] Whether they are people that are able or willing to actually go and stand at the polling places or patrol the early vote lines, I don't know.

[00:35:22] But the more people we train, the better off we all are, even if they don't become a formal peacekeeper.

[00:35:30] So we'll see how that works this time.

[00:35:32] But we've been taking into account the particular issues in Springfield, you know, what we can do, which congregations would be most helpful in all of this endeavor.

[00:35:45] And I am amazed by the network that is forming for support.

[00:35:50] All right.

[00:35:51] Cool.

[00:35:51] Yeah.

[00:35:51] No, thank you.

[00:35:52] There's been so much happening there in Springfield.

[00:35:54] And it's been comforting to me to know that y'all have been plugged in.

[00:35:58] There's so much insidious hate coming from our senator and candidate for vice president, J.D. Vance, spreading these lies.

[00:36:08] We're recording this on the night of the debate between vice presidential candidates.

[00:36:12] And so I'm expecting there to be a resurgence in this narrative.

[00:36:16] We'll see how that goes.

[00:36:18] We're starting to wrap up, but as you were talking about just everything in 2021 with the shift, what was the name of that?

[00:36:25] It was around collaboration, the collaboration ban.

[00:36:28] It got me thinking about how Ohio really has been like a testing ground for ideas around how to limit access to the ballot, make it harder for voters.

[00:36:39] I've seen the voter ID bill going into law a few years ago.

[00:36:42] So I was just wondering if you could talk about just how have you seen those trends develop over the last couple of years?

[00:36:48] A lot of people are talking right now about Project 2025.

[00:36:51] And it feels to me like a lot of the ideas in that proposal have already been sort of experimented with in some form here in Ohio.

[00:36:59] So I was wondering if you could just speak a little bit about that.

[00:37:01] Yeah, when I think about democracy specifically, if you think about how voters were disenfranchised when they were coming out in 2008 in the state of Ohio, where we saw very long lines.

[00:37:15] We saw long wait times, particularly in black and brown neighborhoods.

[00:37:20] And we think about the laws that have been passed since then.

[00:37:25] And we can see a very stark contrast and a very stark change.

[00:37:30] I would welcome all of our listeners to really, there are documentaries out there on elections in Ohio dating back to the 2008, 7, 12 elections.

[00:37:42] I would say, you know, do a quick Google search and take a look at those.

[00:37:46] But we used to have Golden Week where folks could register to vote and vote during the same week.

[00:37:51] So we didn't have this stark cutoff when it came to voter registration.

[00:37:56] We just recently, we got the strict voter ID bill.

[00:38:00] We've gotten rid of Monday early voting.

[00:38:03] So the Monday before election day, where we could know about 40,000 people throughout the communities who were utilizing that Monday early voting.

[00:38:12] We cannot give out food and drinks to folks who are in the lines waiting.

[00:38:18] We have very strict line warming laws that prevent people from giving water or food or anything while people are standing in line.

[00:38:28] And so when that bill passed down in Georgia and folks were like up in arms, I was like, we then couldn't do that here in Ohio.

[00:38:36] I'm like, that's already been a lot.

[00:38:38] I didn't know that other communities didn't have this, you know?

[00:38:41] And so I think about all of those particular things.

[00:38:45] And I think it's important, particularly because the ID bill that we have is the strictest in the nation.

[00:38:52] Around the same time, we also passed a citizen-only provision in our Constitution to say only American citizens can vote, which was already the law of the land.

[00:39:05] So we pushed this really xenophobic message starting back in 2021 to make people think that non-citizens were engaging in our election.

[00:39:16] We tried to get rid of one person, one vote when it came to direct democracy and ballot initiatives.

[00:39:24] But the ID bill, I want to hone in on that, one, because it is the strictest in the land.

[00:39:30] But two, because it really cut a lot of people out of the voting process.

[00:39:37] And we don't often talk about that.

[00:39:39] And I thought, just from my projections, that 2024 would be the year that we saw stark contrast.

[00:39:46] But because we had so many people turn out in 2023 for off-year elections, we saw a lot of people disenfranchised because of that.

[00:39:53] We saw the spike of provisional ballot usage go through the roof because people didn't have the requisite ID.

[00:40:00] And I think that unless we are hitting the streets telling people, you know, reinforcing the people that you need to have a state-issued ID or one of these forms of identification, we're going to see that again.

[00:40:13] The major issue and major problem that we have with that is it is probably disenfranchising.

[00:40:22] A lot of folks is going to have unintended consequences.

[00:40:25] So I think about senior citizens who no longer have an ID.

[00:40:30] We got a lot of calls from adult caregivers of their parents.

[00:40:35] And they would call and tell us, like, hey, I just took my mom on the boat, but she no longer has an ID.

[00:40:40] She doesn't drive anymore.

[00:40:41] And so what do I do?

[00:40:42] And we're like, do you have a passport?

[00:40:44] Do you have this ID?

[00:40:46] Do you have that ID?

[00:40:47] If not, you got to go down to the B&B.

[00:40:49] You have to get her an ID.

[00:40:51] You can use that form.

[00:40:52] But it's so cumbersome for folks.

[00:40:55] Students can't utilize their student IDs anymore.

[00:40:59] That wasn't a thing when I was voting and I was on a college campus.

[00:41:03] And so in 2020, we had the largest turnout when it came to our election.

[00:41:10] And that was during a global pandemic.

[00:41:13] More people turned out in the 2020 election than we had seen in our history of Ohio elections.

[00:41:20] Nearly 6 million people.

[00:41:23] More than half of the folks utilized vote-by-mail ballots or early voting because they didn't want to stand in line.

[00:41:30] Fast forward to 2024.

[00:41:33] We now have the strict ID.

[00:41:35] We now have these notions that non-citizens are in our voter rolls.

[00:41:40] And they are making it harder for people to vote, even though we just saw one of the most successful elections in our state's history.

[00:41:50] And so I want to put that, you know, as a frame.

[00:41:53] Because if this election we don't see, I think that we should always aim higher.

[00:41:58] Like, I think that we should be trying to break every record that everybody should be engaging in the vote.

[00:42:05] And if we see significant fall off from 2020 to 2024, I think a lot of that is going to be because of the laws that were passed and the burdens that have been placed on voters to vote and engage in the ballot process.

[00:42:23] And we, as advocates, will continue to fight.

[00:42:27] We will continue to push for good policies.

[00:42:29] But it really will be a stark contrast for our lawmakers, the people who are down in Columbus making these laws on our behalf, to hold the record up and say, this is because of you.

[00:42:41] You passed these laws and these are the implications that it has on voters.

[00:42:45] Because I think that they don't really, they're very much unconnected with the average state voter.

[00:42:51] I remember, I'll say this last thing, you know, back to floor.

[00:42:55] But in 2020, during the pandemic, when we were having this fight over drop boxes that we are still four years later having with our Secretary of State, Ernst Lerose, over drop boxes,

[00:43:07] there was this narrative that he continued to push and lawmakers continued to push that everybody has a drop box at the end of their yard.

[00:43:14] You can just walk your ballot to the end of your driveway and put it in the mailbox.

[00:43:20] And I'm like, not everybody has mailboxes.

[00:43:23] Not everyone has a driveway.

[00:43:25] Not everyone has postal carriers that pick up their mail.

[00:43:30] Because I'm in the city of Cleveland and I can take you to some neighborhoods, some hoods that do not get their mail picked up, that don't have outgoing mail.

[00:43:40] And that's very, that's a very stark disconnect from our lawmakers who are down in Columbus, but don't realize the nuance that everyday people have to endure.

[00:43:52] When Cleveland was highlighted in the book $2 a day, and we talked about how people are so poor that they are literally trying to figure out how to live off of $2 a day.

[00:44:05] And we're following families around right here in the city of Cleveland who are below the poverty line.

[00:44:13] When you tell them that they have to pay for a stamp or have to pay for formula for their child, I think the option is very clear that they're going to pay for formula.

[00:44:23] And so these are the conversations that we are having and I'm trying to reinforce to our lawmakers that seem to be very disconnected from everyday people that Ohio is really not moving in the right direction.

[00:44:37] Going to make just a small note.

[00:44:39] Yeah.

[00:44:39] We know that voting on campuses is chaotic at best.

[00:44:46] And that's by design.

[00:44:48] I mean, who wants all these young people voting, right?

[00:44:50] But to help counter that a little bit, we're going to be training this week a bunch of peacekeepers and poll monitors in conjunction with the Ohio State University School of Social Work.

[00:45:04] So we are expecting a lot of their students, a lot of their social workers to come out and at least be trained in the de-escalation and trained in some of these nefarious practices that bar students from voting.

[00:45:20] So that's we'll see if this works.

[00:45:22] We'll see if this helps to have all of those students trained.

[00:45:26] But it's a trial.

[00:45:28] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:45:29] Oh, wow.

[00:45:30] This has been such an excellent conversation.

[00:45:32] Lots of things brought up that I hadn't even thought about in the world of election protection.

[00:45:37] So let's just talk about how we can, you know, listeners can get involved.

[00:45:42] Let's start with Melissa.

[00:45:43] How can people follow along with, you know, work you're doing and also look to get involved in election protection?

[00:45:50] I think hop on our website and sign up to be a volunteer and then you'll be shuffled to the county and the county lead that you would be under.

[00:45:59] So that would be the simplest way right there.

[00:46:02] I want to say something, though, circling back just a little bit.

[00:46:06] Please do.

[00:46:07] I think to what Kayla was saying that our elected officials, most of them do know the disconnect.

[00:46:15] They are they know the struggle that people are having to vote.

[00:46:20] Controlling the voters is something that's in their mind.

[00:46:24] The less people they have voting, the more they can control the outcome.

[00:46:27] They're changing the mindset from voting being a right to being a privilege.

[00:46:34] And people I hear talking about voting just in my everyday life have made this shift in their mind that it's a privilege to vote.

[00:46:45] And I'm like, it is your right.

[00:46:47] You don't have to pass a test.

[00:46:49] You don't have to be a genius.

[00:46:51] You can be stupid.

[00:46:53] They're like, stupid people shouldn't be voting.

[00:46:55] You know, you're not the arbiter of who is stupid and who is not.

[00:46:59] We all get to vote.

[00:47:02] So that is a shift that is happening that I've noticed, like going from a right to a privilege.

[00:47:09] And we need to shift back to the basic understanding that voting is a fundamental right for all of us.

[00:47:17] And it should be made easier, not harder.

[00:47:20] They're making it harder to vote.

[00:47:22] All of these little things.

[00:47:23] They are not protecting the vote by what they're doing.

[00:47:26] They're just simply making it harder to vote.

[00:47:29] That's what they're doing.

[00:47:30] And I will say that was the same shift, a similar shift that I saw when they changed the idea of what we are as Americans from citizens to consumers.

[00:47:41] They talk about us like we're consumers instead of citizens.

[00:47:45] What's best for the consumer?

[00:47:47] And I'm like, that's a shift, a subtle shift that people have made over the past 20 years in their minds that we're not citizens.

[00:47:56] We're consumers.

[00:47:57] And that is what they want us to do.

[00:48:00] Consume products, products, products, right?

[00:48:02] So I'm like, no one is happening with voting, with this fundamental right of what makes us a free democracy, the right to vote.

[00:48:14] So just wanted to add that in.

[00:48:17] And it's either the best place to end or the beginning of a two-hour conversation.

[00:48:21] Right?

[00:48:22] I wanted to immediately go on like, and in health care, we've done the same thing.

[00:48:28] Exactly.

[00:48:30] So say peacekeepers, if people are interested in peacekeepers, they also go to the website.

[00:48:35] They also sign up and say peacekeepers, and then I get their information and go from there.

[00:48:40] So it's one-stop shopping.

[00:48:43] Yes.

[00:48:44] Beautiful.

[00:48:45] That's beautiful.

[00:48:45] Yeah, I know.

[00:48:46] Melissa, thank you so much for sharing that.

[00:48:48] And we need to protect the vote by making sure we protect the right to vote, expand that right to everyone.

[00:48:54] Thank you all so much for joining us.

[00:48:56] That was just a great place to end the conversation or, like I said, to begin talking about how neoliberalism has destroyed the social fabric and turned us all into consumers.

[00:49:07] Yikes.

[00:49:08] We have to schedule a round two post-election wrap-up.

[00:49:11] So thank you all so much for being on and sharing your experience and your wisdom, dropping so many jewels, and for the work that you're doing and have been doing.

[00:49:21] Each of you has been doing this work for multiple years, multiple cycles.

[00:49:25] Thank you for doing that and for bringing others into this work as well.

[00:49:28] Thank you.

[00:49:29] I appreciate it.

[00:49:30] I'm grateful to be part of it.

[00:49:32] We'll be sure to include links in the show notes so that anything that you guys have spoken of will be easily accessed by listeners.

[00:49:39] Thank you.

[00:49:40] Thank you so much.

[00:49:48] As always, visit whatsgoodohio.com for show notes and links and subscribe to What's Good Ohio wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:49:55] We'll see you next time to keep talking about what's good here in Ohio.