{"id":73972,"date":"2020-10-20T09:20:38","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T13:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=73972"},"modified":"2020-11-24T14:18:23","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T19:18:23","slug":"gretchen-bennett-ohio-primary","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2020\/gretchen-bennett-ohio-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"A Chaotic Primary"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin record-block-editorial-leadin is-style-emphasis-on-text has-media has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"804\" height=\"865\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Ohio_counties_map.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"Ohio counties map\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Ohio_counties_map.png 804w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Ohio_counties_map-591x636.png 591w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Ohio_counties_map-768x826.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Ohio_counties_map-634x682.png 634w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Ohio_counties_map-320x344.png 320w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Ohio_counties_map-492x529.png 492w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Ohio_counties_map-639x688.png 639w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">Election<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Chaotic Primary\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Gretchen Bennett (\u201914) on voter protections in Ohio.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar record-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">October 20, 2020<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/authors\/lauren-eckenroth\/\">Lauren Eckenroth<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>Gretchen Bennett (\u201914) had expected Ohio\u2019s primary elections to be smooth, maybe even boring. The voting rights attorney had run voter protection programs for the Democratic Party in the 2016 presidential and 2018 midterm elections, both of which presented real challenges. In Florida in 2018, for example, poorly designed ballots and a lack of campaign coordination led to statewide recount efforts in three key races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Gretchen-Bennett.jpg\" alt=\"Gretchen Bennett ('14)\" class=\"wp-image-73973\" width=\"361\" height=\"361\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Gretchen-Bennett.jpg 418w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Gretchen-Bennett-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Gretchen-Bennett-344x344.jpg 344w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Gretchen-Bennett-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/10\/Gretchen-Bennett-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 361px) 100vw, 361px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI would have given odds that Ohio could not out-chaos Florida,\u201d she laughs, \u201cbut I would have been wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The evening of March 16, just hours before voting was scheduled to open, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced that the primary would be postponed until June 2 in line with public health guidance issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, state officials asserted that only the Ohio General Assembly had the authority to change the date of an election. The courts got involved, and, lacking other options, Governor DeWine and Director of the Ohio Department of Health Amy Acton closed the polling stations. Confused and with limited information, some poll workers showed up to their stations in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was incredibly chaotic,\u201d Bennett says. \u201cI had 200 poll observers waiting to go into action, and nobody had any idea of what was going on. All kinds of people, with good intentions, were putting out all kinds of misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It took a full week to shake out, after which the Ohio State Legislature passed an emergency response bill that mandated absentee, or mail-in, voting, with limited exceptions for in-person voting. The new deadline was April 28, far short of the June date proposed by the governor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote record-block-bu-pullquote alignwide has-image-focus-center-middle has-quaternary-theme\"><div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote-inner\"><figure><\/figure><blockquote><div class=\"container-lockup\"><div class=\"container-icon-outer\"><div class=\"container-icon-inner\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"container-text\"><hr\/><div class=\"quote-sizing\">Voter suppression is real. It happens because people aren\u2019t paying attention or aren\u2019t well informed, and it also happens because of an intentional effort to disenfranchise people.<\/div><footer class=\"caption\">Gretchen Bennett (&#8217;14)<\/footer><hr\/><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The new deadline sent county election boards scrambling to ramp up messaging and processes for mail-in ballots. In her capacity as voter protection director for the Ohio Democratic Party, Bennett worked with communications teams to craft messages that would get the correct information to voters, help make voters comfortable voting by mail, and help overcome obstacles to do so, like filling out the ballot applications and requesting the right type of ballot. She also dispatched lawyers to each county election board with a list of questions that would help her team understand each board\u2019s processes and request access to public records regarding rejected ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was hoping the boards would let us observe in person or would share the information, because it\u2019s public record, when they rejected ballots,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to have people chasing those ballots to help cure them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ohio has a 15-year history of no-excuse absentee voting, but the multi-step process to apply for and receive a ballot is more onerous than voting in person. In addition, Bennett notes, some voters don\u2019t trust the absentee ballots. \u201cI guarantee that voters were being disenfranchised,\u201d she says. \u201cI was getting calls and emails from people asking me if this was some kind of a trick. I was offering to help walk them through the process and they were saying that they don\u2019t want to\u2014that they wanted to vote in person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All told, voters in Ohio <a href=\"https:\/\/healthyelections.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-07\/Ohio%20Primary%20Memo(2).pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mailed in 1.56 million absentee ballots, 85 percent of the total vote<\/a> (compared to 8.6 percent of the total vote in the 2016 primaries). While voter turnout was depressed\u2014with 22.65 percent of registered voters casting ballots, compared to 43.66 percent in the 2016 primary\u2014a report from the <a href=\"https:\/\/healthyelections.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stanford\u2013MIT Healthy Elections Project<\/a> suggests that a noncompetitive presidential field may have also been a factor. All the same, county boards were overwhelmed with mail-in ballots and election count issues persisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was hard on everyone, including the people on the boards\u2014they\u2019re not the villains, the pandemic is the villain,\u201d she says. \u201cBut voter suppression is real. It happens because people aren\u2019t paying attention or aren\u2019t well informed, and it also happens because of an intentional effort to disenfranchise people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s why Bennett and her team were in Ohio in the first place. In a normal election cycle, she trains poll observers\u2014mostly lawyers and law students\u2014to spot and report issues that may arise as voters cast their ballots. It\u2019s unusual to have a voter protection team on the ground in the primary, but this year, teams were sent to battleground states early in order to \u201cflush away any issues we needed to handle in the primary,\u201d Bennett says. \u201cIn Ohio, of course, it turned into the primary that wouldn\u2019t end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end-of-article\">\u201cBut I knew there was a reason I was sent here,\u201d she says. \u201cAt the end of the day, you want to be somewhere where it matters that you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<section class=\"wp-block-editorial-collection-billboard record-block-editorial-collection-billboard\">\n\n\t\t<h3 class=\"collection-billboard-intro-title\">This Series<\/h3>\n\t\t<article class=\"collection-billboard-article\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"collection-billboard-media\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"collection-navigation-image\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"700\" height=\"500\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2020\/03\/voting-booths.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Voting booths\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/03\/voting-booths.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/03\/voting-booths-636x454.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2020\/03\/voting-booths-482x344.jpg 482w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"collection-billboard-media-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2020\/securing-the-vote\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"collection-billboard-media-title-link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>Securing the Vote<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"collection-billboard-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"collection-billboard-small-title\">Also in<\/h4>\n\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"collection-billboard-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/collections\/voting-in-2020\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"collection-billboard-title-link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t>Voting in 2020<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"collection-billboard-list\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"collection-billboard-list-item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"collection-billboard-list-item-article\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"collection-billboard-list-item-article-date\">October 31, 2024<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"collection-billboard-list-item-article-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2024\/politically-inclined\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"collection-card-article-title-link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Politically Inclined<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"collection-billboard-list-item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"collection-billboard-list-item-article\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"collection-billboard-list-item-article-date\">October 20, 2020<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"collection-billboard-list-item-article-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2020\/don-calloway-the-fight-for-fair-elections\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"collection-card-article-title-link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>The Fight for Fair Elections<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/collections\/voting-in-2020\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"collection-billboard-link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t>Series home<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<\/article>\n\n\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gretchen Bennett (\u201914) had expected Ohio\u2019s primary elections to be smooth, maybe even boring. The voting rights attorney had run voter protection programs for the Democratic Party in the 2016 presidential and 2018 midterm elections, both of which presented real challenges. In Florida in 2018, for example, poorly designed ballots and a lack of campaign coordination led to statewide recount efforts in three key races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11260,"featured_media":73977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"Election","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[3706],"bu-publication":[3742],"record-article-category":[3744,3770,3786],"record-topic":[3890],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/73972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73972"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/73972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74179,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/73972\/revisions\/74179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73972"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=73972"},{"taxonomy":"record-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/record-article-category?post=73972"},{"taxonomy":"record-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/record-topic?post=73972"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=73972"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=73972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}