Monday, September 12, 2011

Bill Introduced in Ohio Senate to Move Presidential Primary to May. ...again.

Ohio Senate President Pro Tempore Keith Faber (R-12th, Celina) today introduced legislation in the Ohio Senate to eliminate the March primary in the Buckeye state. Primaries for all offices would all take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May instead of every primary election shifting to March in presidential years under the bill (SB 217).

Recall that the Ohio legislature previously moved the primaries to May earlier in the summer. But the overarching elections legislation (HB 194) that created that change also contained provisions that are now under attack on voting rights grounds. A petition being circulated across the Buckeye state would prevent the legislation in HB 194 from taking effect until it could appear on the 2012 general election ballot. In other words, the shift to a May primary would be nullified.

This new, clean bill should be expected to move fairly quickly through the legislature. Of course, we have all seen in Missouri how "fairly quickly" can morph into, well, not so quick, uh, fairly quickly.




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