September 20, 1977

Lawyers Battle Over Ohio Election Drive

An epic legal battle is being waged behind the scenes in Ohio which will greatly affect proposed, radical changes in election laws through out the nation.

At issue is the new "instant registration" law which the veto-proof Democratic legislature rammed through on a straight party basis.

Republicans are alarmed that casual procedures will bring out voters responding to last-minute liberal appeals.

Spearheading the struggle is a bevy of Democratic celebrities.  Vice-president Walter Mondale, Ohio Senator John Glenn, and Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum have kicked off a $125-a-plate fund raising dinner to round out a kitty of one million dollars with which to defeat an effort to repeal the newly-enacted law.

President Jimmy Carter has promised to apply his moral persuasion if the front-line troops waver.

It undoubtedly will be necessary to call in the President, for opposing the Democratic blitzkrieg is a committee of unknowns armed with a powerful political weapon - bipartisan support.

The committee, headed by Republican and Democratic election board workers, jumped up when the Ohio Supreme Court upheld a piece of legal trickery that short circuits the constitutional right of citizen referendum.

In the most arrogant display of political power in this century, the legislative majority tacked on a partial funding amendment to the original election bill.  The Dems claimed this maneuver made the law an "appropriation measure" which citizens can not bring to popular vote.

The GOP appealed this subterfuge to the Ohio Supreme Court, also controlled by a Democratic majority.  By party line vote, again, the court closed the door to normal redress procedures.

Fortunately, the Ohio State Constitution permits citizen petition on all subjects.  The Ohioans for Preservation of Honest Elections.  Committee undertook the formidable task of gathering 307,000 signatures to get the issue on the November ballot.

The committee's first task was to get the petition wording approved by Democratic Ohio Attorney General William J.  Brown.  He dragged his feet until the committee threatened to take him to court for failing to perform his designated duties.  Finally he said OK.

The Dems then went to a partisan judge in Morgan County and obtained an injunction to prohibit the taking of signatures on the ground the petition wording approved by the attorney general was improper.  The committee appealed this writ to the three-judge Federal Court of Appeals in Canton which overturned the injunction.

Next, the Dems challenged the deadline for petitions - charging it was one day sooner than that used in all previous petition drives.  The committee, already working within a two-week time span, sent out couriers the day before the new deadline to gather petitions.

Back to the Ohio Supreme Court went the Dems contending the federal court did not have jurisdiction over a common pleas court on a state matter.  Flying in the face of two centuries of jurisprudence the Ohio Supreme Court majority threw out the federal court decision.  The Dems then scurried back to Morgan County for a new injunction to prohibit the Secretary of State, Ted Brown, a Republican, from accepting the petitions.

With this, the committee snatched up all the petitions it had on hand and literally ran to the State Capitol Building.  Committee members dumped the signatures on Ted Brown's desk just 40 minutes ahead of the arrival of the new injunction.

As it turned out, the committee had a hundred thousand signatures more than required.  However, this did not end the legal battle.

The Democrats have filed still another legal case, this time with the Federal District Court in Columbus, on the same old charge that ballot wording carried over intact from the petitions is improper.  At this writing the district court's decision is pending.

What ever the outcome of this latest harassment, it is expected that legal blocks will be thrown up until Election Day itself.  The Democratic National Committee has several Washington attorneys here bird-dogging local opposition.

Both political parties have zeroed in on the new Ohio election law because it is a prototype of similar legislation now before Congress.  As Ohio goes, so will go the nation.

If the Ohio instant registration law is approved by voters, the Democratic majority in Congress will have the courage to enact a nation-wide version.

Should Ohioans vote "Yes" overwhelmingly on State Issue 1 to repeal, such grassroots sentiment probably would postpone the Democratic one-party power grab until another day.

The Committee for Honest Elections is concerned that the number of fraudulent ballots cast already dismayingly large -will increase with instant registration.

Personally, I am more upset with the new provision that posts the names of registered voters on the walls of polling places for public inspection.  As voters cast their ballots, their names are checked off so union bosses - and others - can track down "slackers."

Such Gestapo tactics are abhorrent to Americans.  It will be a great tragedy of history if we lose some of our ballot secrecy by legal trickery.

Author: Lindsey Williams