Ohio's Democratic Congressional Delegation urges Ohio's secretary of state to protect in-person voters and poll workers as the Nov 3 presidential election nears in the midst of a pandemic....Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio

 

From left: U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Cleveland and U.S. Representatives Marcy Kaptur, Tim Ryan, Marcia L. Fudge, and Joyce Beatty (Members of Ohio's five-member Democratic Congressional Delegation)

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), along with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and U.S. Reps. Joyce Beatty (D-OH-3), Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), and Marcia L. Fudge (D-OH-11), chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Elections, on Friday penned a letter to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose urging him to immediately take action to protect the health and safety of Ohio voters and poll workers in this upcoming November election.

Full text of the letter can be found here

The recommendations include requiring social distancing and the wearing facemasks, and  providing the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to poll workers.

“As Ohio’s secretary of state, it is your responsibility to ensure that all Ohioans have access to safe in-person voting options and that poll workers, the backbone of our democracy, are afforded every health and safety precaution in this upcoming election," the Democratic federal lawmakers wrote in the letter to LaRose, a Republican. "You have an urgent obligation to communicate the steps you are proactively taking to instill confidence in the machinery of democracy. "

Ohio has at least the 37,057 poll workers necessary for the 2020 election, but thousands more are needed, election officials have said, partly due to fears that the coronavirus may keep some who signed up initially at home on election day, which is Nov 3.  

The 2020 presidential election pits incumbent president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, up against former president Joe Biden, the nominee for the Democratic Party. 

Together dubbed Ohio's Democratic Congressional Delegation, the five federal lawmakers who sent the letter to LaRose, namely Sen Brown, and the four members of the  U.S. House who represent different congressional districts in Ohio, Kaptur, Fudge, Beatty, and Ryan, urged him to immediately implement the recommendations made by a coalition of 200 doctors, faith leaders and leading voting rights advocates relative to protection protocols.

Sen. Brown, a former secretary of state himself, is a Cleveland Democrat and a more senior member of Congress, and a liberal lawmaker and Ohio's most influential Democrat.

Congresswoman Fudge is a Warrensville Heights Democrat whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland and  a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Ohio's most prominent Black Democrat.

The longest serving woman in Congress, Rep. Kaptur is a Toledo Democrat whose 9th congressional district extends to Cleveland.

Rep Beatty, who, like Fudge, is Black, is a Columbus Democrat, and Congressman Ryan, who ran unsuccessfully for president this election cycle, is a Youngstown area Democrat.

There are 16 members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, 12 of them Republican, and the other four Democratic, coupled with two U.S. senators for the state, Brown,  and  Sen. Rob Portman of Cincinnati. 

Ohio's Democratic Congressional Delegation, like the Republicans, has taken an active role in the upcoming presidential election as it always has, particularly in battling a Republican secretary of state like LaRose, who succeeded Lt Gov Jon Husted into office.

Husted dropped his campaign for governor in 2018 and joined Gov Mike DeWine's gubernatorial ticket as a lieutenant governor candidate, DeWine subsequently defeating Democrat Richard Cordray, a former consumer watchdog under former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president.

The dispute between the lawmakers and LaRose on voting, which they say he and the Republicans actively suppress, has been brewing for sometime. 

Last week, the five Democratic lawmakers fighting for Ohio sent a letter to secretary of state LaRose urging him to work with the skilled and dedicated tradespeople of Ohio to locate additional drop boxes across all 88 counties. 

That letter says, in relevant part, that " the men and women of Ohio State Sheet Metal Workers Locals #24 and #33, as well as the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council, have said they stand ready to build additional secure ballot boxes, at no cost to the state."

The Democrats say that LaRose’s recent appeal of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas’ ruling directing him to allow multiple secure ballot drop boxes is the latest example of how he has injected considerable uncertainty at an already challenging time for elections officials, already working on tight schedules and budgets.

Republicans in Ohio control the Ohio House and Ohio Senate and, aside from two seats on the seven-member, largely female Ohio Supreme Court, hold all of the statewide offices, including the offices of governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, and attorney general

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.