In the latest Cost of Voting Study, which evaluates all 50 states based on what it calls "the overall investment a resident must make in time and resources to vote," Ohio was 41st.
On this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown take a step back from the day-to-day news of the campaigns and look at the process of actually voting. Political scientist Michael J. Pomante, a co-author of the recent study, joins the show.
Poll taxing
The process of voting varies across the country. The system of picking our national, state and local leaders is far from perfect and can be manipulated by Snollygosters.
The latest Cost of Voting Study is out. It ranks states based on 10 categories including registration, inconvenience, early voting, polling hours and absentee voting.
According to the study, Oregon and Washington, which both vote entirely by mail, rank first and second. Mississippi and New Hampshire ranked 49th and 50th. Ohio ranks at 41, getting poor scores for early voting and voter registration.
Debate, debate
After weeks of indecision, political jockeying and negotiations behind the scenes, Ohio's two candidates for U.S. Senate have agreed to debate twice.
Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Ryan will debate in Cleveland and Youngstown.
The Cleveland debate is set for Monday, October 10 at 7 pm. It will be hosted by the local FOX affiliate. Plans are for this debate to air on Nexstar Stations in Dayton and Columbus.
The Youngstown Debate will happen a week later on Monday, October 17th. It’s sponsored by WFMJ TV and it will be aired locally.
Snollygoster of the week
The January 6th commission was supposed to host what could be its final public hearing this Wednesday but the commission postponed it saying it was not appropriate to hold the hearing as a major hurricane was coming ashore on the west coast of Florida.
Of course, if the commission held the hearing, it would have been overshadowed in the news, and the broadcast networks and cable news channels likely would not have covered it live. When it comes to breaking news, reporters hanging on to lamp posts will always trump congressional hearings, even congressional hearings about Trump.
If you have a suggestion for our Snollygoster of the Week award, a question or a comment, send them to snollygoster@wosu.org.
