Ohio groups take measures to protect voting during November midterm election

Ohioans are voting in the midterm election, and as they are, an array of groups is working to ensure that it’s free and fair. 

Absentee and early in-person voting started last week in the Nov. 3 election last week. As they have, a consortium of pro-democracy groups has positioned monitors at polling places, set up an election hotline and has lawyers and others waiting to be dispatched if problems arise.

At the same time, the NAACP announced plans to open a legal war room of its own on Oct. 24.

Many of the measures are routine, but fears are elevated this year.

President Donald Trump already tried to overturn an election he lost in 2020.

Behind in the polls, he’s again making false claims about election security. In May he would not rule out the possibility of sending federal agents to polling places — which many legal experts say is illegal.

In the face of that, volunteers are working to ensure normalcy in this year’s election.

“There’s a very robust election-protection effort,” said Mia Lewis of Common Cause Ohio.

She said her group, the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition, the League of Women Voters, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups are training and have deployed poll monitors. 

The political parties have observers inside polling places where they observe what’s happening, but aren’t allowed to talk to voters. Nonpartisan monitors are outside polling places, where they answer nonpolitical questions and watch for problems.

“We answer people’s questions and make sure everything is going smoothly,” Lewis said. “Poll monitors are the eyes and ears on the ground of the Ohio election-protection system.”

The groups also have lawyers available if legal issues arise, and “peacekeepers” such as ministers and social workers to dispatch if things get tense, Lewis said.

And there’s a national election protection hotline — 866-OUR-VOTE (687-8683) operated by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law. Anyone with questions or who sees potential problems can call.

“We have access to that on the back end, so if problems are reported we can try to solve them in real time,” Lewis said. “We try to spread the word about the hotline as much as we can before the election because the more people know about it, the more voters we can help, the more problems we can solve.”

The group operating the protection hotline can accommodate languages other than English.

So far, most of the problems the Ohio groups are hearing have to do with confusion about deadlines and absentee voting, Lewis said. She added that recent changes in the state haven’t helped.

The rights groups want all Ohio citizens to know that hundreds of volunteers have fanned out across the state and they should feel safe voting. Lewis said that’s especially true for citizens who were born outside the country or have foreign-sounding names.

“We definitely hope they aren’t discouraged from voting because they feel things are strange this year,” she said. “We really, really hope that doesn’t happen. We want folks to go out and vote and exercise their rights.”

Meanwhile, Ohio is among the 16 states the NAACP is including in its midterm war room, which will provide “a dedicated phone line, email addresses, and digital forms for voters to submit any cases of alleged voter intimidation, suppression, or issues while voting,” the group said in a written statement.

“The NAACP will respond to credible cases as they emerge to help ensure eligible voters can cast their ballots and have those ballots counted.”

The state-level hubs will launch by Oct. 24. They come after conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court have dramatically weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was intended to ensure all citizens have equal access to the ballot — and to representation in government.

“We cannot buy into the fear,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a written statement.

“Donald Trump wants us to be afraid, because he is a deeply unpopular president. He’s afraid of losing his grip on Congress, so he wants us to stay home and make it harder to vote. Real power belongs to the people, and the NAACP is ready to protect all voters when they go and cast their ballots.”