Al Sharpton kicks off OH voter rights drive
FOREST PARK -- Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton on Thursday evening revved up a crowd of more than 450 people who came out to support an Ohio Voters Bill of Rights.
Republicans' efforts to try and suppress the vote "is all a scheme to disempower and disenfranchise the vote in Ohio," Sharpton told the crowd gathered at Word of Deliverance Church.
"Nobody gave us the right to vote and nobody is going to give it to us now," he said. "We fought for it and we're going to fight for our right to keep it."
Sharpton, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, has been critical of Ohio's voting laws on his nightly MSNBC talk show, PoliticsNation.
Sharpton's comments prompted standing ovations, waving of "protect voting rights" signs, as the event felt like a presidential campaign rally.
Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou criticized Sharpton's appearance.
"Al Sharpton will never escape his legacy of lies from the Tawana Brawley hoax," he said. "America should never forget the damage he has done. He has become a national joke."
Democratic State Representative Alicia Reece, of Bond Hill, who leading to effort to put the constitutional amendment on the November ballot, took the stage, too.
"No more temporary solutions to permanent problems," Reece told the crowd. "It is time for an Ohio Voters Bill of Rights. There's no money and I'm not a lawyer, but we're going to do this."
The amendment would allow online registration; maintain current identification options and expans them to include student identification; maintain the 35-day early voting period and forbid a ballot from being rejected due to poll worker error.
The goal: End partisan input into voting laws.
To put the amendment to voters in November, supporters need roughly 385,000 valid signatures by July 2.
Rev. Bobby Hilton, president of the Cincinnati chapter of the National Action Network, called on Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter as an example of why the Voters Bill of Rights is needed. Hunter, who is facing eight criminal charges and is suspended from her job, faced a long-contested election over provisional ballots before she was finally declared the election's winner.
Hilton also, in a move that quickly drew criticism from Republicans, called Melowese Richardson to the stage to welcome her home. Richardson was convicted of voter fraud for voting on behalf of friends and family and was recently released early from a five-year prison sentence. Hilton and the National Action Network worked to free Richardson, saying the sentence was racially motivated.
Petitions were passed around Thursday night and people were urged not to leave without signing.
"Voting means civil rights," said Bernadette Johnson-Shamel, 47, Westwood. She came out to support the effort and plans on collect signatures.
"Blacks still have to fight to make their vote heard," she said. "We're going to keep fighting until they are."
More on voter rights Friday
While Sharpton focused on Ohio voting, a Friday morning bus trip is planned to demonstrate that it would be a bad idea for the county to move early voting to Mount Airy. Hamilton County officials are considering moving the county Board of Elections operations to the former Mercy Mount Airy Hospital property it recently acquired.
The problem, critics say, is that the location is not accessible via public transportation.
Democratic State Senator Nina Turner, who is running for Secretary of State, and State Senator Eric Kearney, D-North Avondale, will ride a Metro bus from the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Walnut Hills to Downtown; transfer buses and then ride another bus to Mount Airy.
The one-way trip is expected to take an hour and a half.