Commissioners haven’t given up on voting ads

The Franklin County commissioners said Thursday that they’re still trying to determine how to pay for public-service announcements spotlighting early voting and the Nov. 6 general election, after the county prosecutor formally notified them they don’t have authority specified in state law to spend the money that way.

“We are waiting to hear back from a few sources, but there are ongoing conversations,” Commissioner John O’Grady said.

“We are not giving up. ... Time is running short, so we’re going to have to get something done very quickly.”

County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien’s office provided guidance on the issue in a letter this week, noting that the Ohio Revised Code grants “explicit authority to the board of elections to advertise election matters” but that there was “no similar explicit grant of authority for boards of county commissioners.”

As such, First Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Nick A. Soulas Jr. wrote, commissioners did not have explicit authority in state law “to contract for any media advertising for the date, time and location of early voting ...”

Earlier this month, the two Republican members of the Franklin County Board of Elections blocked the ad spending, saying the coming election already was well publicized and the outlay was unnecessary.

Brad Sinnott and Douglas Preisse also noted that the secretary of state’s office sent notices and absentee ballot applications to all registered voters statewide.

While they agreed ad spending was needed in past years when the county’s early voting center was on the move, it’s been located on Morse Road for several years.

“Now, years and years later, this is like advertising buggy whips for carriages,” Preisse said. “… It made sense in the past. It makes no sense now.”

The two Democratic members of the elections board voted in favor of the spending, saying it was needed to promote early voting. Comparable advertising was contracted with bipartisan support since at least 2006, and the amount being spent has gone down year over year.

The commissioners last week transferred the $245,000 dedicated for advertising from the board of elections budget to their own, with intentions to contract for public-service announcements promoting the county’s early voting center.

The same day, they formally requested guidance from the county prosecutor for assistance in identifying applicable sections of state law to accommodate the spending.

“We’ve gotten feedback from various sources that we have the authority to do that,” Commissioner Kevin Boyce said.

“Unfortunately, the way our system is set up, the prosecutor’s word and interpretation is a factor in us being able to spend those dollars. It’s disappointing, quite frankly.

“We have a real duty to the new residents, new voters, aging voters, disabled voters and everyone to provide them with the information of where to go. The need to get out that message via electronic resources can be critical to certain communities.”

The back-and-forth pits the three county commissioners, who are all Democrats, against the county prosecutor and the two dissenting elections board members, who are Republicans. O’Grady said the GOP elections board members’ opposition to early vote ads amounts to voter suppression by the Republican Party, in a year when Democrats appear to have an edge at the polls.