StgCoach – Page 65 – Oh, Contrarian!

Ten Day Wonder

Today, without intending to, I joined the many voters casting the dreaded “provisional ballot” in today’s election. I’m told that this means my vote won’t be counted for ten days; I guess that’s all right, just so long as it counts.

Recent changes in election law have created “no-fault” absentee voting, in which voters can cast absentee ballots without giving a reason. Following a mistake-plagued May primary election, our Board of Elections encouraged Cuyahoga County voters to cast absentee votes rather than wait until Election Day to vote.

So Lynn applied for an absentee ballot, received it, and sent it in well before Election Day. I sent in my own application on October 28, which should have allowed plenty of time for the Board of Elections to mail me my absentee ballot. But legal challenges to Ohio’s voter ID law drew conflicting court rulings, causing election boards to hold onto their absentee ballots for several days to find out whether they needed to put stickers on the envelopes.

The legal decision was finally made on Wednesday, and my absentee ballot arrived on Saturday. By that time the only certain way to make sure my ballot got to the Board of Elections on time was to drop it off, so I figured I might as well wait and vote at our polling place.

I headed over there early this morning, only to learn that once you apply for an absentee ballot the only way you can vote at the polling place is by provisional ballot. Two other voters were filling out provisional ballots while I completed mine, so clearly my experience wasn’t too unusual.

If they are going to encourage voters to vote absentee, I think election officials ought to make it clear that doing so locks voters out from conventional voting. But overall, the experience wasn’t bad. The young poll worker handling provisional ballots was a bit tentative, but it was only 7:30, so I guess that’s not too surprising. I just wish I had waited around to make sure he signed the envelope containing my ballot!

God, guns, and gays

On Tuesday, The Plain Dealer reported on a press conference in which a group of ministers (who use an organizational name but claim they are speaking as individuals) voiced their endorsement of Ken Blackwell for governor. Interested in seeing the original article? Try this link. I sent the following letter to the editor, but so far The Plain Dealer hasn’t shown any indication that they will print it. I figure I’ll publish it here.

Predictions that Kenneth Blackwell’s campaign would focus on “God, guns, and gays” received further confirmation Tuesday in Ted Wendling’s article “Ministers Back Blackwell, Challenge IRS.”

The article quotes Donald Tobin, an OSU expert on tax-exempt organizations, as saying that the ministers spoke as individuals; yet it also identifies them as a a group calling themselves “Clergy for Blackwell.” No one disputes people’s right to form groups: like freedom of religion, freedom of association is protected in the American Constitution. But when they act in concert, specifically attempting to influence their congregations by implying that the Blackwell candidacy is blessed, no one should interpret their speech as individual.

This curious non-group “coalition” of people “speaking as individuals” would remind us all that the candidates’ positions on “abortion, same-sex marriage and placement of the Ten Commandments in public buildings” differ. These are serious issues; but does any thinking Ohioan believe that they have anything to do with Ohio’s present decline and imperiled future?

Mr. Blackwell is quoted as saying that “the flip side of a theocracy is not the secular state. The flip side of a theocracy is religous liberty.” What he conveniently forgets is that centuries of successful experience at home and bitter observation abroad have demonstrated that a secular state is the best protector of religious liberties.

In Matthew’s gospel (22:21), Jesus tells us to “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” If we were electing a pastor-in-chief, the clergy’s statements–and The Plain Dealer‘s decision to give them prominent display–might make sense. As it is, we are electing a governor; and the governor’s mansion belongs to Caesar.

Electing a believer to live there is a good idea; electing someone who manipulates believers is not.

A Good Night for All of Us

(Note: Voting on Friday, May 5, Ohio Education Association Representative Assembly delegates elected Jim Timlin as OEA’s Secretary-Treasurer and re-elected Marsh Buckley as a National Education Association Director from Ohio. Both men are members of northeastern Ohio locals and the North Eastern Ohio Education Association.)

Voting results for the recent elections hadn’t even been officially announced last week when a friend from outside NEOEA congratulated me on the election results. “It’s a good night for you and your colleagues,” he told me.

I knew what he meant, of course. Candidates don’t win offices in the state’s largest public employee union without effective planning and leadership. Both candidates had good campaign plans, and NEOEA leaders did an effective job of making sure that NEOEA delegates voted. My friend was congratulating me on an outcome that my elected leaders had worked toward, and which I had supported (off hours, of couse) as a retired volunteer. My friend meant the compliment well, and I accepted it as graciously as I could; but he had it wrong.

The election of Jim and re-election of Marsh were a triumph for NEOEA only if they were the right choices for OEA. If somehow they prove to be the wrong choices for OEA over the next three years, northeastern Ohio members will suffer just as much as our colleagues throughout the rest of the state. Not that I expect that to happen: I’m sure they’ll serve well and make all of us proud. But my point is simple: NEOEA doesn’t win unless OEA wins.

There are those throughout OEA who fear NEOEA because our wealth and size create power. (More on that in another column some other time.) NEOEA’s delegation is the largest among OEA’s district associations, but it’s a highly diverse, independent-minded group. Since the ballot is secret, just holding onto the base is a challenge for most NEOEA candidates. And since we don’t have anywhere near a majority of the delegate votes, a candidate from NEOEA has to both energize his or her base and earn votes from other parts of the state. Both Jim and Marsh did that.

The point? Our candidates didn’t win because of NEOEA’s size and wealth. They won because they were strong candidates who ran good campaigns. The May 5 election wasn’t a victory of NEOEA over the rest of the state; it was a victory for all of us and for public education in Ohio.