You will NOT automatically be sent an application to get your absentee ballot.  You must request the application.

CALL  614-525-3100

OR

Complete an application ONLINE or MAIL to the Franklin County Board of Elections. 

Don't miss your chance to vote NO on Issue 2 (to repeal SB 5).  Avoid lines by voting absentee.  

Time to stand up for Ohio's middle class

Come to the Ohio Statehouse (1 Capitol Square, Columbus, Ohio 43215) Tuesday, February 22, at 1 p.m. to protest the attempt to end collective bargaining in Ohio!

If ever there was a time to show up, stand up and let our voices be heard, it is now. The fate of Ohio’s middle class is on the line at the Ohio Statehouse. Your presence will send a strong message and help efforts to defeat Senate Bill 5 and the rest of the GOP’s anti-middle class agenda. 

Wear your work uniform if applicable (fire fighter uniform, scrubs, etc) OR wear red. RSVP.

Can't attend on Feb. 22?

Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper in opposition to SB 5.  Tips and contact information for your local newspaper.

Attend a phone bank to engage other activists in activities against Senate Bill 5. Find the phone bank closest to you.

Here's what you can say about Ohio Senate Bill 5

• SB 5 is a jobs killer. It will weaken the middle class in Ohio.
• Anyone who supports SB 5 is destroying jobs in Ohio and harming the middle class.
• If SB 5 passes, shops, stores, gas stations and other merchants in communities across this state will lay off workers or shutter their windows and close their doors.
• For almost 28 years, collective bargaining has: Reduced labor strife; reduced the likelihood of strikes; and improved training and productivity among public employees.
• The repeal of collective bargaining will do nothing to balance the budget because: 9 percent of the state budget is for state employees; firing every state employee in Ohio would save only $2 billion, leaving the state without vital services and there would still be an $6 billion deficit; since this does not address the budget deficit, it is clear that anti-worker forces are using this to harm the middle class and kill jobs.

Other talking points:

• Public employees provide a wide range of necessary services. They drive children to and from school safely. They patrol our streets, put out fires, provide transportation for disabled and elderly, safeguard our prisons, plow our streets, fix our busted waterlines in freezing weather.
• Our teachers, police, firefighters and other public employees are also our neighbors, friends, family members, coaches, volunteers. They are part of the fabric of our communities.
• Our prison guards, bus drivers, water and sewer workers, educators, in-home caregivers are also consumers and customers in their communities. They spend their money locally on cars, appliances, furniture, food, gas, and other items.  They keep local merchants open, hiring and thriving.

Fill the Statehouse

Attend two hearings on Senate Bill 5, the GOP effort to destroy collective bargaining for teachers, police, fire fighters and other civic employees.
Today, Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 2:30 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 17, at 10 a.m.

Committee on Insurance, Commerce and Labor
 
The Ohio Democratic Party is trying to turn out as many people as possible to these hearings. Join in!

Voice your opinion

Can't attend the hearings? Call, write, and email. Senator Kevin Bacon R-3rd Senate District, chairs the Senate Committee on Insurance, Commerce and Labor, which is holding the two hearings this week on SB 5. Please contact his office to voice your opposition to SB 5.

Letters:
Senate Building
1 Capitol Square, Ground Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Calls: (614) 466-8064
Email: SD03@senate.state.oh.us

Answers for Tea Party supporters

Tea Party members will be coming out to support SB 5. The Buckeye Institute makes it clear that ending collective bargaining is a priority. However, the Ohio Democratic Pary does not want any confrontations between public employees, union members or their supporters and Tea Party members. (And there may be individuals with a different agenda using the Tea Party as cover to antagonize or create problems that would be reported in the media.)
Any interactions between anti-SB 5 and pro-SB 5 Ohioans should be positive.
Messages to the Tea Party should be two-fold:

• Join us in building and strengthening the middle class in Ohio and America. We are you and you are us. We share the same values, good jobs, affordable health care, a strong economy.
• Public employees serve you. Did you make coffee or take a shower this morning? They make sure your water is clean. Did you see a nurse in the past year because you or your family member was ill? They help you feel better. Did you shop for groceries in the past week? They stock your shelves with food. Did you drive on roads to Columbus today? Thet pave those roads. Do you feel safe knowing the police or a firefighter is a phone call away? They are your cops and your firefighters.

THE TRUTH ABOUT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

DEBUNKING THE MYTHS

Gov. John Kasich and his bullies are trying to paint a false picture of our hard-working police, fire fighters, civil workers and teachers. Don't you believe it. Here are the facts about dedicated public servants, as presented by the Ohio Democratic Party.

THE PAY MYTH

• On average, public employees actually earn $2,000 less than private sector peers
• On average, public employees are higher educated (48%) than private sector peers (23%)
• Higher educated private sector employees earn on average $22,966 more a year than public employees

DRAIN ON THE BUDGET MYTH

• Public employees are not responsible for the $8 billion budget deficit in Ohio
• Eliminating every state employee job in Ohio would only save $2 billion
• Budget gaps in states without collective bargaining are 16.7% higher on average than Ohio
• Anti-union forces are using public employees as scapegoats

THE SACRIFICE MYTH

• Public employees have agreed to make sacrifices
• They have taken furloughed days without pay amounting to 10% of annual salaries
• They have taken four pay freezes in 9 years
• They are contributing more to their health care plans

THE TRUTH ABOUT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

Gov. John Kasich and his bullies are trying to paint a false picture of our hard-working police, fire fighters, civil workers and teachers. Don't you believe it. Here are the facts about dedicated public servants, as presented by the Ohio Democratic Party .

THE PAY MYTH

• On average, public employees actually earn $2,000 less than private sector peers
• On average, public employees are higher educated (48%) than private sector peers (23%)

• Higher educated private sector employees earn on average $22,966 more a year than public employees

DRAIN ON THE BUDGET MYTH

• Public employees are not responsible for the $8 billion budget deficit in Ohio
• Eliminating every state employee job in Ohio would only save $2 billion

• Budget gaps in states without collective bargaining are 16.7% higher on average than Ohio

• Anti-union forces are using public employees as scapegoats

 

THE SACRIFICE MYTH

• Public employees have agreed to make sacrifices
• They have taken furloughed days without pay amounting to 10% of annual salaries
• They have taken four pay freezes in 9 years
• They are contributing more to their health care plans

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kasich on all-white cabinet: No qualified candidates 

John Kasich is the first Ohio governor since the 1960s to start his term by appointing an all-white cabinet. (And only five are women.) His reason? He couldn't find "qualified candidates." Sound familiar?

After an outcry, he has appointed one minority member -- Michael Colbert, who is black -- as director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. But Colbert had previously been serving as interim director of the social welfare agency.

When the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus offered to help Kasich diversify his cabinet choices, he told them, "I don't need your people." His staff later said he meant Democrats, not people of color. What?

State Senator Nina Turner (D-District 25, Cleveland) recalls Kasich's rebuff (from the Jan. 31, 2011, Ed Show on MSNBC). She points out that cabinet positions call for administrative skills, not agreement with Kasich's political outlook. And surely there are qualified people of color in Ohio, or in the country, who are experienced administrators.

Kasich's stance shows "strong insensitivity," Turner noted. We'll say. After all, Kasich already has skipped a remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr. -- and issued a proclamation honoring the civil rights leader on St. Patrick's Day.

More:

I-Publist.com, "Ohio Governor Says, 'I Don't Need Your People'"

ThinkProgress.com, "Gov. Kasich to Black Lawmaker, 'I Don't Need Your People'"

Human illness is now linked to factory farming practices. Salmonella levels are over 5x higher in factory farm eggs than organic, and when medical researchers at the University of Minnesota took more than 1,000 food samples from multiple retail markets that sold factory farmed food, they found evidence of fecal contamination in 69% of the pork and beef and 92% of the poultry samples. Nine out of ten chicken carcasses in the store may be contaminated with fecal matter.

Great news for progressives in today's Dispatch on two fronts: a defeat for the attempt to repeal health care reform in Ohio and the Humane Society is fast closing in on the number of signatures required to get the farm-animal care amendment on the ballot.

Grassroots political action really works! 

With the real threat of a farm-animal amendment on the November ballot, the Humane Society now has the bargaining power with the Livestock Board to get the job done with or without a constitutional amendment. Which way it goes depends on whether the Livestock Board and state officials will agree to minimum care standards (Columbus Dispatch, June 23, 2010: "Health-care repeal won't be on Ohio ballot, but farm-animal amendment remains on track"):

Pacelle [the Humane Society's president and CEO] said the only reason the petition would not be filed is if the Humane Society reaches an agreement with state officials and the newly formed Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to enact the proposed reforms without going the route of a constitutional amendment. The biggest stumbling block undoubtedly is a proposal to eliminate the practice of keeping farm animals in very confining cages and pens for long periods.

The minimum standards the Humane Society requires include prohibiting a farm operator from confining a calf, pig or hen on a farm for all or most of the day in a manner that prevents the animal from lying down, standing up, fully extending his or her limbs or turning around freely; and prohibit the killing of cows and pigs on farms by strangulation.

The proposed amendment is designed as a countermeasure to last year’s Ohio Livestock Care Standards, which was Issue 2 on the ballot. That measure — pushed for mostly by agribusiness and large corporate-owned farms — created a board where 12 of the 13 board members are political appointees, meaning they likely will be vulnerable to political influence from big donors like agribusiness, which generally wants looser standards.