Agenda


Mar. 7th, 2023

 

Bold New Democracy

work group session

Our Mission


We work as political activists to build a bold new democracy

that is passionate, progressive & powered by people.


Invitation emailed Mondays as "this week's Bold New Democracy Invite..."

Otherwise, available as "work session" on our website:

https://boldnewdemocracy.org/meetings


Minutes are posted between Wednesday and Friday at the latest -

https://boldnewdemocracy.org/actions-taking


Tonight's Discussion Kickoff

Rep. Sedrick Denson, Michele Dillingham,

Sue Mangan et al

with Cincinnati Educational Justice Coalition



Q&A

Topics Should Include:

  1. School Funding
  2. Tax Abatements
  3. Their Fair Share


Strategies in Support of Our Objectives

2022 - 2023 BND Objectives


--Independent redistricting commission to redraw all maps for 2024.


Mia Lewis - Fair Elections and Redistricting Reform


--Use data to find & engage w/ citizens who are inactive in our democracy.


Alex Linser, Hamilton County Board of Elections


--Reproductive rights, making abortion a constitutional right in Ohio.


Update from OPRR on Mar. 3rd:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear #ProtectChoiceOhio Coalition,


You may have heard the incredible news that yesterday Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost accepted our language and summary for our Reproductive Freedom amendment. This was a huge hurdle and we are so proud of everyone’s hard work that got us to where we are today. 


THANK YOU, TO EVERYONE HERE - for your tireless work and enthusiastic support. Together we are making history! 


The ballot language is currently being reviewed by the Ballot Board, which has 10 days to determine if the amendment covers only 1 issue. Once approved by the ballot board we can start collecting signatures (413k needed; goal 700k)


What do WE do now? 


  1. Every other week zoom coalition meetings to start Tues, March 7th 12:15 pm - 1:00 pm. Please join if you can. Calendar invite was sent last night or this morning. Please contact mariah@ProtectChoiceOhio.com if you did not receive. 


  1. Keep liking and sharing #ProtectChoiceOhio social media posts, encourage your members to follow @ProtectChoiceOhio on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and to sign up to join at ProtectChoiceOhio.com. Social media kit to be shared with coalition leaders in the next few days. 


  1. Fundraising help - huge fundraising efforts are underway (signature collection is budgeted at $6 million!!). If you’d like to host a fundraiser event or have ideas for fundraising please contact Eli Wenzel at eli@sstrategiesconsulting.com. Donations are graciously welcomed and can be made at ProtectChoiceOhio.com.


  1. Planning for our MASSIVE signature collection drive which will hopefully start in less than 10 days! More information will be provided regarding this over the next several days.


Thank you for your invaluable support over the past months! We couldn't do this without you!


Onward! 


Dr. Lauren Beene, Dr. Aziza Wahby, Dr. Nancy Li, Dr. Marcela Azevedo, and the entire team at Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights

#ProtectChoiceOhio


---------------------------------------------------------------


OPRR’s Campaign Timeline:


Links to "get involved" in Protect Choice Ohio's (OPRR's ballot initiative) are listed under OHIO NEWS/REPORTS below. See the Healthy Democracy & Voter Engagement Team's section:

Participant Sharing

Participants to share relevant reading, actions taken, any issues that require immediate actions.


Participant Contributions

Contributions for participant sharing may also be sent to dan.shatzer@gmail.com.

To be included in the upcoming meeting, contributions must be received by noon the day of or by participating in the meeting.


  • Sue Mangan re: Tax Abatement final report. CEJC presented demands: City Council Meeting Feb. 28th Voice your concerns or question to: CityCouncil@cincinnati-oh.gov 






  • Matt McGuire: New Items weekly and sooner! See his latest #YouBeTheJudge!


Key Takeaways? What did you learn or otherwise want to comment on regarding today's leadoff discussion?

Share or submit to chat.

March 7th, 2023

Actions from

Healthy Democracy & Voter Engagement Team

Leader is Lucy Crane lucrane@aol.com

LOCAL ACTIVITIES/NEWS/REPORTS:

 

Woman’s City Club 29th National Speaker Forum: …UPCOMING

Who: Marcia Coyle, Award winning journalist

What: “A LOOK INSIDE THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT”

When: Thursday, March 23, 2023

Where: Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202. Tix-$50

MEMORIAL HALL … CLICK HERE TO ORDER

Greater Cincinnati Voter Collaborative:

Have you been purged? Check your registration!

Ohio’s Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, has announced a purge of nearly 125,000 voters from Ohio’s list of registered voters. Although a purge is supposed to remove only those who have not voted in six years, recent purges have been notable for including thousands of active voters—in one case up to 20 percent of the total number purged.


Click here to search the list of purged voters. GCVC also recommends checking your voter registration a couple months before an election so you have time to re-register before the deadline. The deadline to register for the May 2 primary is April 3.


Check your registration!


OHIO NEWS/REPORTS:


Protect Choice Ohio 

You may have heard the incredible news that yesterday Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost accepted our language and summary for our Reproductive Freedom amendment. This was a huge hurdle and we are so proud of everyone’s hard work that got us to where we are today. 

 

THANK YOU, TO EVERYONE HERE - for your tireless work and enthusiastic support. Together we are making history! 

 

The ballot language is currently being reviewed by the Ballot Board, which has 10 days to determine if the amendment covers only 1 issue. Once approved by the ballot board we can start collecting signatures (413k needed; goal 700k)

 

 

What do WE do now? 

 

1.     Every other week zoom coalition meetings to start Tues, March 7th 12:15 pm - 1:00 pm. Please join if you can. Calendar invite was sent last night or this morning. Please contact mariah@ProtectChoiceOhio.com if you did not receive. 

 

2.   Keep liking and sharing #ProtectChoiceOhio social media posts, encourage your members to follow @ProtectChoiceOhio on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and to sign up to join at ProtectChoiceOhio.com. Social media kit to be shared with coalition leaders in the next few days. 

 

3.     Fundraising help - huge fundraising efforts are underway (signature collection is budgeted at $6 million!!). If you’d like to host a fundraiser event or have ideas for fundraising please contact Eli Wenzel at eli@sstrategiesconsulting.com. Donations are graciously welcomed and can be made at ProtectChoiceOhio.com.

 

4.   Planning for our MASSIVE signature collection drive which will hopefully start in less than 10 days! More information will be provided regarding this over the next several days

 Dr. Lauren Beene

Executive Director 

Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights 

ProtectChoiceOhio.com


SIGN UP TO CIRCULATE PETITIONS: (2 ways)

 



Householder Trial Update

  • Latest update by Sandy Theis, former reporter and political analyst: 

Ohio: We’re Number 1! (In Corruption, not in Green Energy) — Householder Trial Update # 8

OHIO HB 458: UPDATE

STATUS:

·       1-6-23 Signed by Governor

·       4-7-23 Effective

 

Ohio HB 458: One pager/Summary info

  • Voters will be forced to provide a strict photo ID to vote, 
  • Voters will lose the last Monday day of early voting,
  • Voters will lose the freedom to vote provisionally with the last four digits of their social security number, 
  • Voters will have their absentee ballots thrown out if their ballots are not received within four days of Election Day
  • Boards of Election will be limited to a single drop box location,
  • Voters lose the ability to have postage for their absentee ballot requests
  • Noncitizens risk being targeted and harassed by a new requirement to list citizenship status on Ohio driver’s license;
  • Only voters with physical disabilities will be allowed to access curbside voting; and

 

Ohio HB 458 Lawsuit – 

  • Lawsuit filed by ​​the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, Union Veterans Council and Civic Influencers against Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) and the state’s 88 county boards of elections challenging House Bill 458


  • The plaintiffs allege that H.B. 458 “will severely restrict Ohioans’ access to the polls—particularly those voters who are young, elderly, and Black, as well as those serving in the military and others living abroad” and “imposes needless and discriminatory burdens on Ohioans’ fundamental right to vote” in violation of the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit asks the court to permanently block the challenged provisions in H.B. 458 for being unconstitutional.


  • A preliminary stay will be asked for to put a stay on the law…next couple mos. will be ruled on.



House Bill 458 SoS Directive + Material Update

Directive will go into effect for the beginning of UOCAVA voting (March). However, free ID will not begin until 4/7. – read HERE.

  • U.S. Military ID includes Ohio National Guard, Suspended licenses (unexpired) can be used as ID.
  • Voting with the assistance of BOE officials = Vote by Mail rules
  • Droboxes will be open 24/7 during early voting. 
  • Lack of clarity on what can be placed INSIDE during early vote period.
  • Early Vote hours increased in the week before Election Day.
  • The use of old forms (absentee ballot, voter registration).
  • Curbside Voting: Election officials cannot challenge a voter.

Voting by mail is now the only way to vote without an ID.

Vote Riders – Nick Ramos Nick@voteriders.org 

Nick will be the organizer working with Ohioans and organizations helping voters with ID changes until they hire someone full time to work for Ohio.

Vote Riders works to help voters accessing ID’s and assistance voting.

  • more information – here

You can now order Vote Riders cards! – order here

  • Sign up to join the list for future Ohio-specific buddy training
  • Speakers Bureau Materials coming!

OHIO -HJR1-UPDATE

As we feared, HJR6 has risen from the dead and is back again as HJR1. Astonishingly, the new bill, entered into the record last week, is even worse. Not only does HJR1 raise the required percent pass rate for all ballot measures, it also makes ballot collection significantly harder by requiring signatures equaling five percent of the gubernatorial vote in all 88 counties (up from 44 counties currently). It also removes the “cure period,” the window after signatures are turned in when a campaign is allowed to go back out and collect more to try to make up for a shortfall.


It may be early days for HJR1, but it is not too early for us to educate the public. It’s important that voters understand how this drastic change to the Ohio Constitution would be –

Before proponents of HJR1 have the chance to spread a false narrative about their bill, we want voters all over Ohio to hear and understand that this bill aims to take away their rights and drastically curtail their access to democracy.


Here’s how you can help inoculate Ohioans against a false understanding of HJR 1: write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Explain why you believe we must not allow a change in our constitution that would take away the power of one person, one vote. You can write as an individual or as a representative of your organization.


To make it easy, we’ve put together an HJR1 Letter to the Editor Toolkit. Take a look and write a letter today. We believe by getting our message out early we can stop this bill in its tracks.



Take action: Write a letter to the editor


Thank you for taking action, and for all you do!

HB 16: Merrin’s Transparency Bill

  • A bill that would move us forward in the right direction for bill transparency
  • The biggest change is that the employers of lobbyists would have to report how much they are spending on lobbyists. 
  • Read the text of HB16 – here.
  • Analysis of the bill – here.

 

While this bill is a step forward, there are room for improvement – 

The bill does NOT

  • Require political nonprofits and other corporate groups to disclose their donors and spending.
  • Provide public access to records at Ohio’s bill-writing agency, the Legislative Service Commission (LSC).
  • Require entities that engage in political advertising to report the expenditure and to identify themselves in the advertisement as the funding source.

SB 71: Data Analysis Transparency Archive Bill

This bill deals with information sharing and maintaining the Statewide Voter Registration Database. Read the text of the bill – here.

 

Bill highlights:

  • Each individual voter would have to have drivers’ license number, SSN, and time of registration.
  • Allows SoS to enter into agreements with persons/organizations that engage in “legitimate governmental purposes related to SVRD maintenance.”
  • “Voter Activity” will be determined in rulemaking – which effects voter purge. 
  • Voter files would need to include how they voted in the last election.
  • Forces county BOE’s would have to send daily voting files to the SoS every evening. 
  • This equates to 250+ days of the year of necessary reporting.


Communication & Values Team

leader is Matt McGuire tobytorpedo@protonmail.com

You be the Judge ... Have You Seen Them?

We will be starting a campaign using BND social media to highlight both what Democrats are doing & what Republicans are doing, locally, state, & federally, so citizens can see a direct. Coming soon on BND’s Facebook page…


BND Papers


Published:

Read Marta Lehman's paper. Democracy and Economics


Afterward, describe how you've been impacted by commenting here.

Coming soon:

Marta: Democracy and Economics

April - Democracy and Education

Dan - It's Called Democracy - Conclusion

Action:

Do a paper on your pet issue, start now, you have plenty of time to perfect it! To find the papers already written go to

https://boldnewdemocracy.org/bnd-papers


Write Letters to the Editor (LTE) based on our actions & values.

Dan Shatzer dan.shatzer@gmail.com is the leader & coach of the BND LTE team. we use a team approach ... helping one another, if you wish, prepare & submit letters. Dan is glad to help LTE writers with ideas & editing ... he gives great support ... reach out to him.

 

Write & submit letters to the editors (LTE) of these papers using their "how to's."

 

Cincinnati Enquirer how to’s ... click here; Online Letters to the Enquirer

Cincinnati Herald ... email Dan Yount, Editor, editorial.seshnow@gmail.com; Online Letters to the Herald

New York Times how to’s ... click here; Online Letters to the NYTimes

Washington Post how to’s ... click here; Online Letters to the Washington Post 



Other actions:

1. After you write a LTE (whether or not it is published by the paper), send a copy of your letter to dan.shatzer@gmail.com to include in our next weekly BND agenda

2. Please post your letter on BND FB page and on other social media sites 

Participate in our next Tuesday BND Session

DATE 3/14/2023

TBA



we meet Tuesdays at 7pm – By tradition Invitations are sent out the day before, Monday. We may be altering that to the preceding Thur. or Fri. with a reminder Monday.

also

work with the Action Teams of Bold New Democracy

Healthy Democracy & Voter Engagement Team

Communication & Values Team

The full agenda for this session will be posted

on our website between 6 - 6:30pm next Tuesday

at https://boldnewdemocracy.org/meetings

details for zooming in to join the meeting

will be emailed to you next Monday


Send your agenda suggestions

to Lucy Crane

BND Leadership Team Member

lucrane@aol.com

Website

https://boldnewdemocracy.org

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGgB3lPBMiuRzddW_1vt8Dg Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/278959796099493/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/BND4All

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/boldnewdemocracy/

Social Contract Values

here

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