Over the weekend, Secretary of State candidate Nina Turner and I hosted a forum in Cleveland on voting rights. It was a packed house, and people were eager to hear how the Attorney General can protect voting rights. In the coming year, Nina and I will continue this conversation in cities across the state.
My view is simple: as your Attorney General, I take an oath to uphold the Constitution, so my duty is to defend and protect Ohioans’ constitutional right to vote. When that right is trampled or threatened by laws and officials in Ohio, my job is to stand up, speak out and protect Ohioans’ sacred right.
Unfortunately, when my opponent faced this moment in 2012, he didn’t stand up for voters. He eagerly defended the suppression of voting rights. One plan he defended allowed some people to vote early in the weekend prior to the election, but not others—an obvious constitutional violation. Another plan disqualified your vote if a poll worker incorrectly instructed you to vote at the wrong table in your voting location, and even if you were otherwise registered correctly!
The good news is that court after court rejected the Attorney General’s arguments in defense of unconstitutional laws. The bad news is that at the moment where he should have been protecting you, the Attorney General instead defended laws that clearly violated your rights.
So in 2014, your vote for Attorney General will determine a very simple question: does Ohio have an Attorney General who defends your right to vote, or defends schemes to suppress that right? Needless to say, the result will have implications on elections in Ohio for years to come.
As Attorney General, I will be a defender of your voting rights.
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Paid for by Citizens for Pepper Committee, Don Mooney, Treasurer, 600 Vine St., Suite 2800, Cincinnati, OH 45202
