OLBC President Reece comments on court decision on same day voter registration
COLUMBUS— Ohio Legislative Black Caucus President and State Rep. Alicia Reece (D-Cincinnati) today responded to the recent federal district court decision that Ohio legislation eliminating a week of same day registration violated both the 14th amendment and the Voting Rights Act.
“I am pleased that the federal court has affirmed what we knew all along – that the elimination of the same day voter registration was an unconstitutional restriction on our most basic democratic right that disproportionately affected minority voters in Ohio,” said Reece. “Today’s court decision and that fact that we continue to face voting restrictions in the state legislature only six months before a major presidential election underlines how badly we need a Voter Bill of Rights to enshrine our most fundamental freedom in the state constitution.”
Reece is a long-time voting rights advocate and spoke at the 50thAnniversary of the March on Washington.
She also leads the ongoing push for a Voter Bill of Rights, a grassroots effort to amend the state constitution to protect all Ohioans’ right to vote. The Voter Bill of Rights would amend the state constitution to define the right to vote as a fundamental right, establish early voting dates and times, allow the legislature to prescribe proper training and staffing for polling locations, create an online voter registration system, protect against voter ID requirements and voter registration tests, and include safeguards that ensure provisional ballots are counted.
