Gearing Up for 2008: Ohio’s Local Voter Protection Advocate Enlists Community Groups as Voter Protection Partners
Voter Protections Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 3
June 8, 2007
ON THE GROUND
By Donita Judge
Ohio’s Local Voter Protection Advocate, Deborah Barksdale, is making sure that community groups are aware of Advancement Project’s Voter Protection Program. Barksdale spoke recently at a public policy meeting facilitated by local coalition partner, Dayton Parity. She provided information to community groups on voter protection and coalition/partnership building in preparation for the upcoming 2008 elections and beyond.
During her presentation, Barksdale shared with community groups that Advancement Project has been involved in coalitions and partnerships that are successful because the participation and support comes from local community groups. Advancement Project’s coalition partners and allies are often called upon to:
- Develop local voter protection goals and strategies to prevent voter disenfranchisement.
- Attend meetings with local election officials to determine county election procedures.
- Attend press conferences on issues of local importance.
- Sign on to letters to election and/or elected officials.
Barksdale’s coalition building activities do not stop here. Currently, she is contacting prospective partners throughout Ohio to determine which groups will be conducting voter registration for the 2008 elections. Her goal is to meet with community groups and introduce these groups to voter registration verification practices that will guarantee their voter registration activities will result in voters who ultimately end up on the state’s voter rolls.
Barksdale is a council member of the Ohio secretary of state’s Voting Rights Institute and is actively engaged in developing practices to enhance voting rights for Ohio voters. She is also in contact with the Ohio secretary of state’s office to identify upcoming voter registration events and partnership opportunities in an effort to introduce Advancement Project’s Voter Protection Program and voter registration verification practices to a wider range of local community groups.
Finally, Advancement Project’s Voter Protection Program is strengthened through the work of our partners and the various areas of our partners’ expertise. Just recently, Ellis Jacobs, an attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (ABLE), wrote a report for The Montgomery County Voter Protection Coalition (“the Coalition”), which includes ABLE, Advancement Project, Edgemont Neighborhood Coalition, Parity, Inc., and The League of Women Voters. The report, “Voting Machines Malfunction in Ohio, November 2006,” provides details of an investigation that was conducted by the Montgomery County Election Board in response to the Coalition’s demand for a rigorous examination of an alarming problem with voting machines that resulted in “vote flipping” during the November 2006 election. Coalition partners received numerous complaints about this problem and urged the Board to perform a data-driven, solution-oriented investigation.
