Politics
Early Voting Restrictions Could Hurt Over Half of Ohio’s African Americans, Says Ministers’ Group
African American voters in Maryland. PHOTO/Rich Vary/NewsHour
Members of the African American Ministers Leadership Council (AAMLC), a program of People For the American Way Foundation, spoke out today against efforts to restrict early voting opportunities in four Ohio counties that are home to 56 percent of the state’s African American population.
“Jim Crow is alive in the 21st century and evident in the struggles we still face for equal access to the ballot box,” said Rev. Dr. Tony Minor of Cleveland, Ohio. “There are politicians doing the unthinkable: they are making it harder for their constituents to exercise our constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. And once again, these suppression efforts are aimed directly at African Americans in swing states.”
Officials in four Ohio counties — Cuyahoga, Franklin, Summit and Lucas — are set to deny night and weekend early voting to their citizens. Those four counties are home to some of Ohio’s largest cities and over half its African American population.
