Two months ago, I appeared before the Ohio Districting Committee and called on them to end their secret gerrymandering meetings. I got gavelled out of order and my mic cut…but I kept going.
You can watch some of what I said here:
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Sadly, everything I said was happening at that time was happening. Secret meetings. Plans to violate the OH Constitution and rig elections for another decade
It’s played out as terribly as I thought it would….they’re now just openly flouting the law. cleveland.com/opinion/2021/1…
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These election riggers are doing exactly what they’ve been trained to do. What they did 10 years ago.
Here is a slide from a training a decade ago, when they rigged elections across the entire country: “keep it secret, keep it safe”
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And here is the actual, internal schedule from ten years ago in Ohio, where they….in writing…said to keep the map “in the can” until the last possible moment.
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The result of election rigging ten years ago was that almost 99% of the districts they rigged held up all decade. In Ohio, and around the nation.
For the most part, they even survived the blue wave of 2018.
So the GOP remains in the majority in states…
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…like Wisconsin and Michigan even when a majority of voters voted for Democrats.
So right now, as the Senate debates, they’re doubling down. Everywhere they can.
Worse, they’re better at it. And national right-wing groups are helping them even more than ten years ago.
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And why are they so desperate to rig elections?
Here, it’s because the public outcomes from their “policies” are horrific. The corruption is through the roof. They are way more extreme than the voters.
In fair elections, many would lose.
But it runs even deeper.
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We are now witnessing what happens when you have an entire generation of statehouse majorities who have never themselves been in real elections.
Their path to power never involved real democracy.
And everything they’ve done in the non-democratic world in which they are thriving (being extreme, doing the bidding of the Koch Bros, corruption) would be kryptonite in a robust democracy.
And since they are also the people who draw the districts and write the election rules, they are working overtime to keep themselves protected in that world without democracy.
That way they can keep doing what they’re doing with no accountability.
A few weeks after the first districting hearing, I spoke at a second meeting. At this meeting, you’ll see I spoke directly to the three statewide officials on the committee—the Gov, Sec of State and Auditor
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I told them they had a unique role on the committee—as statewide officials, to not simply do what the statehouse majority told them to do…ie. rig their districts for another decade.
That they had a higher duty. That’s why they’re on the committee in the 1st place. WATCH:
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I did that because these statewide officials, as happens in other states, have a tendency to get “rolled” by the gerrymandered statehouse
Even though they’re far better known than the rigged statehouse hacks who largely don’t face elections, they always cave to them
Day 2: just over a year ago, I took footage of this absurd line voters had to wait in to drop their ballots at the one location per county where OH’s Sec of State would allow drop boxes.
You may recall that back then, when we first began advocating for more drop boxes due to delayed mail and the pandemic, the Sec of State (LaRose) assured people privately and publicly he wanted more drop boxes but was not legally allowed to add them:
But in states like Ohio, statehouses no longer meet the definition of healthy democracies: most elections are pre-determined; corruption rampant; there’s no accountability back to the people; and attacks on democratic principles are a near daily occurrence, w no consequences
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Quick story on why Ohio is about to explode in COVID cases:
A friend in a mid-sized rural county mentioned a few weeks ago how worried she was about her kids in school there. There’s no mask mandate—not even a debate on whether to have one.
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She went to a school pre-meeting and said it was packed….that she and her kids were about the only people wearing masks.
She already felt trapped then. That it was far too risky.
School started on the 19th. She says you can count on one hand the kids wearing masks.
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Teachers are not required to wear masks.
When she told the school nurse her older child was vaccinated, the nurse was surprised.
Last week, a student in her younger child’s class tested positive. The school’s policy is that it is up to the parent whether or not to keep…
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These are two of our pets. On the left is one of our dogs, Manchi. On the right is our cat, Dinker.
My wife Alana had Dinker for 4 years before we got married. We got Manchi about a year before we got married.
When we moved in together,
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…let’s just say it was a challenge.
Although he doesn’t bite, Manchi is a very feisty dog. Barks at everything, no matter how big or small. But Dinker would also fight back fiercely, hissing & trying to scratch if he came close
So we had to work hard to keep them separate
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Sometimes, if Dinker was in the wrong room at the wrong time, the chase became so intense we worried one of the two might have a heart attack. Barks and squeals and hisses exploded in the room and we ran in to break it up.
So we just kept them apart. Not just different rooms
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