Secretary of State Jon Husted: Ohio's Happy Hypocrite

At a recent House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform joint subcommittee hearing regarding how President Obama's recent Executive Actions can further undermine voting integrity in the U.S., Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) posed questions to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted about voter fraud. (Click here to watch)

The negative effect President Obama's Executive Action Amnesty will have on voter integrity across the country, along with the devastating costs and effects on our country, cannot be underestimated. And since the integrity of the voting process goes to the core of what we stand for as a country - the importance of protecting & ensuring that integrity must also not be underestimated.

SoS Jon Husted's testimony and recent letter to President Obama clearly shows he hopes voters in Ohio have a short memory. As for Jordan - knowing Husted's role in Ohio's voting fiasco - he should be ashamed for allowing Husted to grandstand!

To be fair, it should be noted that SoS Jon Husted did remove some illegal voters from the rolls in 2012 - 2014.  More importantly, it should be noted that in 2005, as then Speaker of the Ohio House, Jon Husted played a major role in defining the current allowable identification for voting in Ohio.

After campaigning in support of Photo-ID's for voting in his 2010 GOP primary for Secretary of State -

- yet once elected Secretary of State, Jon Husted was the single largest road block to having Photo-ID for voting in Ohio.

In 2011 a bill requiring Photo-ID for voting easily passed the OH House. For his working against it & effectively killing this bill in the OH Senate, Husted was given the title of "Ohio's Pro-Fraud Republican" from the WSJ. 

And for all his efforts to kill this Photo-ID legislation (HB 159), Jon Husted was also commended by Connie Schultz, wife of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), for standing up to the GOP.

In 2013 during the last legislative session, again recognizing anyone with a utility bill was allowed to vote in Ohio, another Photo-ID bill (HB 269) to ensure voter integrity and that only legal citizens were allowed to vote in Ohio elections, was introduced in the Ohio House. 

SoS Jon Husted also actively campaigned against this effort requiring Photo-ID for voting in Ohio, which effectively killed HB 269 by keeping the bill stalled in Committee. 

In June 2014, Husted again expressed his thoughts on Photo-ID's at at Akron Press Club luncheon...

Asked his thoughts on voter identification, Husted said he doesn’t think Ohio should strictly require photo identification, which other states have done. Ohio’s ID requirement accepts photo identification or an alternative form, such as a utility bill.

“As far as identification goes, I think we should leave it the way it is,” he said. (Emphasis Added)

And as recently as November 2014 in an interview with NPR, Jon Husted agreed with his Democrat challenger State Senator Nina Turner that there is no need for photo-ID's for voting in Ohio. 

The political theater of Jon Husteds' new found love for Photo-ID's reeks of political hypocrisy from an establishment politician trying to now use the issue of voter integrity to position & recreate himself for his eventual GOP primary run to be Ohio's next Governor.

In fact - since 2005 - through a bill (HB 234) passed under then Speaker of the House Jon Husted, an individual has been able to use a utility bills as an acceptable form of ID for voting in Ohio. 

Meaning, since proof of citizenship and/or a valid social security number are not required to have a utility turned on in your name, any illegal immigrant able to produce a utility bill has been able to vote in Ohio since 2005.

So as you can see, Jon Husted, helped create the problem, he did nothing about it and he worked against efforts for Photo-ID. Now - "Ohio's Happy Hypocrite" - Jon Husted only supports them when he needs to move to the "right" again.  

The integrity of the voting process and voting in general has been nothing more than a political football for many of the Democrats & Republicans in our state for far too long! (It should be noted that State Senator Nina Turner DID support Photo-ID's for voting registration in a 2013 Plain Dealer article.)

And because of all the Executive Actions and directives taken by President Obama regarding immigration in our country, ensuring voter integrity by enacting Photo-ID requirement's for voting in Ohio & across the U.S. is needed now more than ever before.

Without question integrity of the voting process starts with verifying an individual meets the minimum voting requirement(s) - that being - that they are of legal age & a legal citizen of the United States.

This starts with a valid Photo-ID showing you are old enough to vote and are a legal citizen of the United States.

Please contact your State Representative (click here) & State Senator (click here) in Ohio and let them know you support Photo-ID for voting in Ohio to restore & protect the integrity of our election process.