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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
COLUMBUS, Ohio- Pushed by Ohio Democratic lawmakers seeking legislative changes in voting laws at both the state and national level, Civil and voting rights groups across the state, including the Cleveland NAACP, the National Action Network and Black Voters Matter, will join progressive organizations like Our Revolution Ohio and dozens of allied organizations on Thursday, June 24 from 10 am to noon for a voting rights rally at the Ohio statehouse in Columbus in support of pro voter state and federal legislation. (For more information on the voting right rally call 567-302-1801).
Organizers said the groups participating in Thursday's rally also want amendments to current laws that stifle voting for Ohio's marginalized community and disproportionately impact minority voters, mainly Black people.
Ohio is among several states were rallies are being held relative to voting rights, rights that voting advocates and policy makers say are under attack by Republicans and the right-wing establishment who use the excuse of wanting accountability in voting in working tirelessly to strip away and gerrymander the Black vote, and to water down the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
Buses and cars will be departing from Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Elyria, Springfield, Toledo and Youngstown to head to tomorrow's rally. CDC transportation guidelines will be in effect. For more information, call (567) 302-1801.
Organizers said in a press release that the protest is to also push for automated voter registration, online voting, voter education, multiple offsite drop boxes for voting, and for elections to be adequately funded.
Protesters want Congress to pass both the John Lewis Act and the For the People Act, which, in a party-line 50-50 vote by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, did not reach the 60-vote threshold required to end a filibuster and advance.
Both voting rights bills have been introduced by Democratic federal lawmakers as not one Republican backed the controversial For the People Act on Tuesday, proposed legislation that would expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics, limit partisan gerrymandering, and create new ethics rules for federal officeholders
The rally also comes behind the fight by Democrats and progressive and Civil Rights groups against new state laws passed by Republican-dominated state legislatures nationwide that Democrats say are a broader effort to undermine Black and minority voters in places like Georgia where the state legislature there passed the Election Integrity Act of 2021, originally known as Georgia Senate Bill 202.
Adopted in March of this year amid outcries from Democrats and voting and civil rights groups the Georgia law makes it harder to vote and, in large part, limits voter identification requirements on absentee ballots and the use of ballot drop boxes, expands early in-person voting and bars officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms.
It also reduces the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, and makes it a crime for outside groups to give food or water to voters waiting in line.
Republicans control both the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives, and each and every statewide office, including the governor's office and the offices of the state treasurer and state attorney general, aside from three seats on the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court.
All of those statewide offices and at least one seat on the Ohio Supreme Court are up for grabs in 2022 and so is the U.S. Senate seat that Republican Rob Portman is giving up next year, the other U.S. senate in Ohio seat held by Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat.
Clevelandurbannews.com and-Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper 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
