Democratic State Rep. Kathleen Clyde, a prominent advocate for voting rights, launched her campaign for Ohio secretary of state Tuesday, pledging to making voting in Ohio as easy and accessible as possible.
Speaking next to a voting booth at a Columbus arts complex, Clyde said that as Ohio’s chief elections official, she would seek to boost voter turnout by pushing for automatic voter registration, expanding early-voting hours, and stopping purges of people from voting rolls. She said Ohio’s elections infrastructure needs to be upgraded and voiced support of paper ballots.
“I stand before you today convinced that Ohio can and must do more to encourage participation and strengthen our democracy,” Clyde said to a group of journalists and supporters.
Clyde’s announcement wasn’t a surprise. The 37-year-old attorney from Kent has been the Democrats’ go-to critic of many voting policies implemented by legislative Republicans and GOP Secretary of State Jon Husted, including removing hundreds of thousands of inactive voters from voting rolls and eliminating the so-called “Golden Week” that allowed Ohioans to register and vote at the same time. Husted, who is term-limited, is seeking the GOP nomination for governor next year.
Clyde is the first Ohio Democrat to launch a campaign for secretary of state – or for any 2018 down-ballot statewide race, for that matter. On the Republican side, state Rep. Dorothy Pelanda of Marysville (who represents much of Marion County) announced her bid for secretary of state in March; state Sen. Frank LaRose of Copley is also mulling a run.
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