Here’s why Republicans want to change Ohio’s presidential primary date – By Liz Skalka (The Blade) / July 9 2019
Republicans want to move the date of Ohio’s 2020 presidential primary to give their incumbent President an edge in a battleground state — but Democrats are against a change they argue would depress turnout in an important election year and create chaos at the polls.
Included in the state legislature’s pending two-year budget bill is a provision pushing back the state’s primary to March 17 from March 10, a change the Ohio Republican Party said it requested to conform with national party rules.
The change, inserted by the Ohio Senate, might have flown under the radar if the third Tuesday in March didn’t happen to fall next year on St. Patrick’s Day — a confluence of events critics believe could keep voters from the polls on election day.
There’s no reason why Ohio can’t hold a presidential primary on March 10, the date arrived at based on rules lawmakers set in 2016. But holding the primary before March 15 means Ohio Republicans can’t award delegates on a winner-takes-all basis for the top vote-getter at the Republican National Committee convention. States that vote before then can pledge delegates to more than one candidate, per GOP rules.
Is this a huge deal for Republicans? Not especially, since no insurgent GOP candidate has emerged to challenge Mr. Trump — most voters haven’t heard of former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, his only declared primary opponent. But it does reserve all of Ohio’s delegates for Mr. Trump should his one-time rival, former Ohio governor and current CNN talking head John Kasich, jump into the race and wind up a close second.
In 2016, then-Gov. Kasich won Ohio’s GOP presidential primary with 47 percent of the vote and claimed all its delegates at the RNC convention in Cleveland, leaving Mr. Trump, who came in second with 36 percent, with none. Now the GOP wants the same rules that benefited Mr. Kasich in 2016 to work in Mr. Trump’s favor in 2020.
While another White House bid for him is unlikely, Mr. Kasich hasn’t yet ruled it out, saying he would only enter the race if he thought he could win.
The proposal highlights how the Republican Party, from the national down to the state level, is uniting behind their incumbent’s re-election bid and closing any opening for an insurgent to gain momentum within the party structure. It also reinforces their political upper hand in states like Ohio where the GOP controls the state legislature.
“This is one of the benefits of incumbency,” said Josh Culling, a Washington, D.C., and Ohio-based political consultant. “The President needs to be focused on beating the Democrats in 2020, and the party that he leads has every right to craft the rules in any way that advances that mission. Any Democrat who disagrees should Google the word ‘superdelegate.’”
The switch to March 17 would mean Ohio no longer shares election day with Michigan and six other states. Instead, it would appear on the primary calendar alongside Florida, Illinois, and Arizona.
It would also move Ohio one week further from Super Tuesday on March 3, when most of the nation’s delegates are up for grabs.
In the race for president, the earliest contests are the most defining. After March 15, 2016, only Mr. Trump, Mr. Kasich, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz remained in a race that at its peak had 17 candidates — a number surpassed this year by Democrats who are fielding 25 candidates. Unlike Republicans, Democrats do not award any delegates on a winner-takes-all basis.
Democratic lawmakers are most concerned about the impact the change would have on turnout and recruitment of poll workers. A St. Patrick’s Day election would be problematic for Cleveland — where hundreds of thousands gather to celebrate the holiday — and also in Toledo, they say.
“Everybody becomes Irish on March 17,” state Rep. Lisa Sobecki (D., Toledo) said. “We already have a hard enough time getting people to be poll workers. It will be harder on St. Patrick’s Day.”
“A little bit of confusion and change I believe has a detrimental effect on people being able to vote,” said state Rep. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D., Toledo), the city’s former mayor. “These are things done to give one party an advantage over the other.”
In a letter to Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, 24 Democrats from across the state raised concerns about how voting would conflict with the holiday.
“St. Patrick’s Day is a huge day of celebration in our districts and we are very concerned about the effect this will have on people’s ability to vote that day. Our families, friends and neighbors will be celebrating starting with breakfast, a parade, luncheons and events throughout the day,” he wrote.
“People who otherwise would have been poll workers may have an annual commitment to help with St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Buildings that otherwise would have served as polling locations may have events planned for the holiday instead.”
Mr. LaRose responded Tuesday, saying he wasn’t concerned, and emphasized the month of early voting leading up to election day.
“No matter the date finally chosen, I can affirm that the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, as well as all of Ohio’s 88 county board of elections and 8,000-plus poll workers, will be ready to successfully administer safe, fair, and accessible elections,” he wrote.
