Lawmakers in Ohio seem to be using every trick up their sleeve to make sure African Americans don’t get to vote in November’s election. Last year, they tried to suppress voting rights by passing a restrictive Voter ID law. Since that got turned down, lawmakers tried this week to deny adequate voting hours to counties that are largely African-American.
It was no problem to approve extended early voting hours in the mostly Caucasian (and Republican) counties of Warren and Butler counties. But Republican legislators tried to block extended hours in majority African-American counties like Hamilton and Cuyahoga.
Fortunately, this attempt at voter suppression didn’t work entirely; Secretary of State John Usted announced today that voting hours will be standardized across the state. However, there will still be not early voting in the three days leading up to the election, which will affect the hundreds of African American churchgoers who would have voted the Sunday before Election Day as part of the “Souls To The Polls” initiative.
This won’t be the last attempt at voter suppression that we see this year. We can’t predict what they’ll try next, but we can make sure that every African American in Hamilton County is registered and knows where and how to vote.
Can you donate $10 to help the League protect the voting rights of the people of Cincinnati?
