Cuyahoga Co.'s vote by mail campaign kicks off

They can't do a mass mailing, so they're inviting you, even urging you: ask us for a ballot!

Cuyahoga County's board of elections kicked off a drive yesterday telling residents how they can vote by mail in this November's election. They've asked 400 local institutions to put a Request a Vote By Mail Ballot Application link on their websites. The link goes to a nifty new page that lets residents create a personalized mail-in ballot application. They can download it, or have it mailed to them. They can also download a blank application.

Voters can also call pick up ballot applications at libraries or call the board to request them at (216) 443-3298.

Cuyahoga County residents got used to voting by mail between 2006 and 2010, when the county sent the applications to every voter's home. Next year, every Ohioan will get an application for the 2012 presidential election, thanks to the bargain between Ed FitzGerald and Jon Husted. But for the this November's election -- mostly a referendum on Senate Bill 5 plus some local contests -- people who want to vote by mail will have to ask for a ballot. So Cuyahoga County -- which still wants voters to vote by mail to prevent long lines at the polls -- is doing everything else it can to make it easy.

Voters in other counties can also contact their board of elections -- here's a list.

Update, 9/24: The fragile bipartisan coalition around Cuyahoga County's vote by mail effort is breaking up.

Rob Frost, county Republican chair (and congressional candidate) has resigned from the county's vote by mail task force, upset that several unions have asked the county for ballot applications. The AFL-CIO asked for 185,000. Frost thinks having the county pay to print them, when they'd be used for a political group's get out the vote efforts, would amount to an end run around FitzGerald's deal with Husted. See today's Tipoff here. Update, 9/26: FitzGerald and others on the task force tell Tipoff that the unions are printing their own applications.

Ballot war ends; all Ohio voters to get vote by mail application in 2012

Turns out Ed FitzGerald is a shrewd negotiator, and Jon Husted meant what he said about treating all voters the same. They've ended their battle over voting-by-mail with a dramatic compromise announced this morning.

FitzGerald extracted a major promise from the secretary of state and Republican leaders in the legislature: Husted will send every Ohioan an application for a mail-in ballot for the 2012 presidential election. The legislature will agree to let Husted use federal money from the Help America Vote Act to pay for it. That'll help prevent long lines at the polls from returning in 2012.

The deal satisfies the Republican goal of treating voters in all 88 counties the same. They're doing something I thought they wouldn't do, the opposite of the thrust of their newly passed election law. They're taking urban counties' best solution for overcrowded voting locations and expanding it to everyone, instead of banning it.

FitzGerald had to make a major concession to get a deal with Husted. He had to drop Cuyahoga County's plan to send out ballot applications for the 2011 election. No other county was going to do it, which defied Husted's insistence on creating uniform statewide standards.

Jill Miller Zimon, over at Writes Like She Talks, sounds disappointed, skeptical about the details. But I think the compromise is shrewd. This year's Senate Bill 5 referendum is big, but the presidential election is much bigger.

By using his leverage to make voting easier for people across Ohio, FitzGerald becomes more of a force in state politics -- note how the Columbus Dispatch report calls him "perhaps Cleveland's most powerful Democrat." And Husted gets to reclaim his image as a moderate in ballot controversies. It won't stop the fight over HB 194, but it's the sort of bipartisan compromise on voting issues that has become all too rare.

The biggest question left is, will the statewide mailing only happen once, in 2012? Or will the deal create a precedent that Ohio will follow from then on?

Mason eyes statewide run; GOP would likely use O'Malley ties against him

Bill Mason may run for Ohio secretary of state in 2010 -- and if he does, Republicans will likely hit him hard about his friendship with Pat O'Malley, Mark Naymik reports in his Plain Dealer column today.

Former Ohio House speaker Jon Husted, the top Republican candidate for secretary of state, already has a negative campaign ready, based on O'Malley and the FBI investigation of other county officials:

Husted and the state GOP will link Mason with the county corruption scandal in literature and phone calls. And if they need heavy artillery late in the campaign, they'll bring out video footage of the toast Mason offered at O'Malley's second wedding in 2000.

How do you run for statewide office when your college roommate and former top political ally is in prison for downloading disturbing obscene materials? You acknowledge vaguely that the guy made a mistake and tell people you distanced yourself from him years ago. From Naymik's story:

Last Friday, Mason said about O'Malley: "He was a friend. He's made bad choices and is paying for it."

Mason was not palling around with O'Malley in recent years. Mason never visited O'Malley's Chagrin Falls home or met his kids from O'Malley's second marriage.

The Republicans surely have Mason and O'Malley's campaign finance reports, though. Here's my summary from my article on O'Malley in the October issue of Cleveland Magazine:

If campaign contributions are a reliable indicator, many of O'Malley's allies stuck with him for years, despite his problems. O'Malley's campaign fund borrowed $15,000 from Bill Mason's between 1998 and 2000, and he never paid it back.

You might think the county prosecutor would distance himself from a friend jailed on a domestic violence charge, but Mason contributed $250 to O'Malley's campaign on July 6, 2004, the day after O'Malley left the Solon jail. After the FBI raid [of O'Malley's house], Mason sent O'Malley (between August 2005 and August 2007) his usual contribution, about $400 a year. (Mason declined to comment. "Bill hasn't had contact with Pat in more than a year now," said Mason's spokesman, Ryan Miday.)