Ohio State Representatives Beth Lear (R-Galena) and Brian Lorenz (R-Powell) are championing legislation that would close primary elections in the Buckeye State, requiring voters to cast ballots to nominate candidates corresponding to their registered political party.
Lear and Lorenz filed HB 437 in early March to require voters be registered as a member of a political party for 90 days in order to cast primary election ballots to select that party’s candidates. The legislation would prevent voters registered to the Democratic and Republican parties from casting primary election ballots in the other party’s contests.
Speaking to The Ohio Star, Lear explained, “There is no fairness and no integrity” in the Ohio electoral process “when Democrats and Republicans can cross over in every primary to hurt the other side.”
Lear explained she and Lorenz were initially motivated after Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Delaney determined to run as a Republican in response to legislation that made some judgeships partisan offices.
The judge, explained Lear, had “been a lifelong Democrat in a district that is more Republican than Democrat.” She explained Delaney “filed to run as a Republican when she is not one.”
“That’s the whole reason Representative Lorenz and I did this legislation,” Lear told The Star. “We knew we couldn’t stop her, but we wanted everybody to know.”
Lear explained the media focus on her legislation to ban cross-party primary voting preceded Delaney’s recent primary loss to Delaware County Common Pleas Judge David Gormley.
“That is lying to the voters, typical Democrat playbook stuff.” Lear explained, “We wanted to make sure that there was even more press about what this woman was trying to do so the voters would have enough information to make a good decision, and they did.”
The lawmaker noted the issue of voters crossing the political aisle to vote in another party’s nominating process extends beyond Ohio, and acknowledged the recent claims that Democrats voted in significant numbers for Nikki Haley, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who left the race for the 2024 Republican nomination earlier this month.
Lear also noted that legendary conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh urged his Republican listeners to participate in the Democratic primary election by voting for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2008, before she ultimately lost a contentious primary race to former President Barack Obama despite technically winning the popular vote.
Closer to home, Lear told The Star, “You’ll hear allegations from this primary that the Democrats did the same thing to help [Bernie] Moreno, because they don’t think Moreno can beat Sherrod Brown.”
Lear added, “I think they’ll find out Bernie is stronger.”
When questioned about when the legislation could become law, Lear noted that “Democrat-elected” Speaker Jason Stephens could block changes to the electoral system prior to the 2024 elections.
“It would be great if we could get this and some other election integrity issues resolved by the fall,” Lear told The Star. She conceded, “Because of our Democrat-elected speaker, I don’t know if he’s going to allow us to get any changes to the system to help things be fair before the fall elections.”
“I know the good Republicans are working very hard to make sure illegals can’t vote in our elections, that our elections are free of fraud, and we still have a lot of work to do.” Lear concluded, “Closing the primary to cross party voting is a great step forward.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “State Rep. Beth Lear” by Ohio General Assembly.
