1

OHIO
INCUMBENT: JON HUSTED (R)SEEKING RE-ELECTION
Ohio Secretary of State: At-a-Glance
2014 Nina Turner (D) Jon Husted (R)*
Status Declared Challenger Declared Candidate
Total Raised
(Jan. 2013 June 2014)
$1,218,081 $1,995,422
Cash on Hand (June 2014) $488,957 $2,805,126
Latest Poll (April 2014) 45% 44%
2010 Maryellen OShaughnessy (D) Jon Husted (R)
Results 41.5% 53.7%
Total Raised $1,042,666 $5,512,513
*Incumbent
Sources: Campaign Finance and 2010 Elections Results, Ohio Secretary of State, accessed June 13, 2014; National
Institute on Money in State Politics, accessed February 14, 2014.

Ohio Media Markets
Market
2012 Q4 Political
CPP Persons 25+
2010
O'Shaughnessy
Performance
2010 SOS
Vote Share
Cleveland, OH $267 46.8% 32.8%
Columbus, OH $179 41.1% 20.2%
Cincinnati, OH $144 34.3% 15.5%
Dayton, OH $81 34.0% 11.1%
Toledo, OH $53 40.2% 8.3%
Youngstown, OH $60 54.2% 4.9%
Charleston-Huntington, WV $86 45.5% 2.3%
Lima, OH $27 23.4% 1.7%
Wheeling, WV-Steubenville,
OH
$37 45.7% 1.5%
Zanesville, OH $41 36.2% 0.7%
Parkersburg, WV $40 38.3% 0.5%
Fort Wayne, IN $54 28.8% 0.4%
Statewide $1,069 41.5% 100.0%
Sources: 2010 Elections Results, Ohio Secretary of State, accessed December 11, 2013 and
Television Planning Guide, MSR, 2012.



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POWERS AND RELATED DUTIES
The Secretary of State of Ohio serves as the chief elections officer of the state, overseeing election
processes and appointing members of the boards of elections in Ohios 88 counties. The SOS is
responsible for:
Supervising the administration of election laws
Reviewing statewide initiative and referendum petitions
Chairing the Ohio Ballot Board, which approves ballot language for statewide issues
Canvassing votes for all elective state offices and issues
Investigating election fraud and irregularities
Training election officials
Working with counties to train poll workers
Compiling and maintaining election statistics, political party records, and other election-
related elections
Overseeing campaign finance compliance by receiving campaign finance reports from
candidates, PACS, state political parties and legislative caucus campaign committees.

Additionally, the Secretary of State is a member of the Ohio Apportionment Board, which meets
every 10 years following the census to redraw the boundaries for each of the 99 Ohio House and 33
Ohio Senate districts. Other members of the Apportionment Board are the Governor, the Auditor of
State and two members, one Republican and one Democrat, appointed by state legislative leaders.
Outside of elections, the Secretary of State receives and approves articles relating to businesses in
Ohio and is the keeper of official state records.
1

JON HUSTED (R) - SEEKING RE-ELECTION
Incumbent Jon Husted was first elected in 2010 with 53.66% of the
vote. He defeated Democrat Maryellen OShaughnessy by 457,969
votes. OShaughnessy had previously served as the Democratic
Clerk for Courts in Franklin County before running for the open SOS
position. The previous SOS, Democrat Jennifer Brunner, opted to
run for Senate in 2010 but lost in the primary. Prior to 2010, Husted
was a state representative and state senator from suburban Dayton.
2

In the 2012 election, Husted generated controversy with his efforts to
limit early voting hours.
3
Husted also flagrantly violat[ed] state
elections law
4
in an effort to prevent the counting of provisional
ballots. In both instances, Democrats successfully challenged
Husteds directives in federal court. The Ohio Secretary of States
office has long been tied to election controversy. Previously,
Republican Ken Blackwell oversaw the 2004 Presidential election in

1
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted: Duties & Responsibilities. Accessed Sept. 16, 2012.
2
Jim Provance, OShaughnessy trumpets experience on local level, The Toledo Blade, Oct. 23, 2010.
3
Alan Johnson, Supreme Court rejects Husteds early voting appeal, The Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 16, 2012.
4
Joe Guillen, Federal judge rips Jon Husted for unconstitutional change to Ohio election rules, The Plain Dealer, Nov. 13, 2012.
Ohio Secretary of State
Jon Husted (R)

3
Ohio, leading to the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of voters.
5

In a 2013 speech addressing the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission, Husted called for
reforms to the states redistricting process. Under his proposal, in order for maps to be enacted into
law, they would need to be developed by a larger commission and require a supermajority in both
legislative chambers to pass. Husted also said any new districts should be compact and
competitive.
6
He reiterated this proposal in a Washington Post editorial, in which he called for a
seven-member bipartisan board to oversee Ohios redistricting.
7

In late 2013, the Ohio legislature passed a bill that gave additional electoral power to Secretary of
State Husted. SB 200, which was signed by Gov. John Kasich on Dec. 19, 2013,
8
compels state
agencies to work with the secretary of states office to verify names on the voter filea mandate that
many believe could lead to voter purges, forcing many people to reregisteras well as reducing the
minimum number of voting machines that counties are required to have
9
potentially resulting in
long lines, similar to those that Ohioans experienced in 2004.
10
The bill also paved the way for Ohio
to participate in an interstate voter-roll-scrubbing project known as Cross-Check, which allows the 26
member states to make sure voters do not vote in more than one state. The program, started by
Kansas Republican Secretary of State Chris Kobach, is aimed at identifying voters who are
registered in multiple states, but the process is severely error-prone. Ohio joined the network of
mostly Republican-controlled states in a settlement with Judicial Watch and True Vote, two
Conservative organizations with the goal of reducing alleged voter fraud, that sued Ohio to force the
state to clean up its voter rolls.
11,12
In October 2013, Husted sent a letter to legislative leaders recommending they cut early voting
hours.
13
Shortly thereafter, SB 238 began making its way through the Republican-controlled
legislature. Recently, Governor Kasich signed the bill into law, thereby eliminating the period during
which voters can register to vote and simultaneously cast an early in-person ballot, known as the
Golden Week.
14
The bill reduces the early voting period from 35 to 28 or 29 days, depending on
the calendar.
15
In 2012, 50,000 people voted during that six-day period, and according to the New
York Times, African American voters were more likely to take advantage of the opportunity to vote
early.
16
SB 236 does not specifically outline which days or hours county boards of election must be
openthat will be left up to the secretary of state.
17
The law will be in effect for the November
elections,
18
and Husted set the early voting dates for Ohios primary for weekdays starting 35 days
before election day and with limited hours on Saturdays. Notably, the polls will not be open on
Sunday, when many African American churches organize sending groups of parishioners to the polls
after Sunday services. Cuyahoga County Executive and Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Ed

5
Andy Kroll, GOPer Behind Ohios Botched 2004 Election Eyes Senate Run, Mother Jones, Apr. 21, 2011.
6
Robert Higgs, Jon Husted Makes Pitch for Overhaul of Ohios Redistricting Process with Emphasis on Compact, Competitive
Districts, The Plain Dealer, November 14, 2013.
7
Husted, Jon, From Ohio, lessons in redistricting reform, The Washington Post, Feb. 6, 2014.
8
Voting Rights Legislations: SB 200Voter Registration Database Modifications( 2013-2014), Ohio ACLU, Accessed Feb. 15,
2014.
9
Pelzer, Jeremy, Voter database bill heads to governor; House passes measure on animal cruelty, mental health, The Plain
Dealer, Dec. 11, 2012.
10
Roth, Zachary, Ohio voting bill could lead to long lines, voter purges. MSNBC, Dec. 12, 2013.
11
Roth, Zachary, Its official: Ohio signs on to Tea Party voter purge scheme. MSNBC, Jan 14, 2014.
12
Israel, Josh, Ohio Agrees To Use Error-Riddled Voter Purge List. Think Progress, Jan 14, 2014.
13
Jim Siegel, Husted Asks Legislators to Trim Early Voting, The Columbus Dispatch, October 25, 2013.
14
Higgs, Robert, Kasich signs voting bills that end Golden Week and limit distribution of absentee ballots, Cleveland.com, Feb. 21,
2014.
15
House panel approves bill to limit early voting, absentee ballot mailings, The Toledo Blade, Dec. 11, 2013.
16
New York Times Editorial Board, Ohio Mistrusts Democracy, The New York Times, March 15, 2014.
17
Siegel, Jim, Bill to trim early voting moves forward, The Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 12, 2014.
18
Higgs, Robert, Kasich signs voting bills that end Golden Week and limit distribution of absentee ballots, Cleveland.com, Feb. 21,
2014.

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State Senator and
Candidate for Secretary of
State Nina Turner (D)
FitzGerald called the hours unacceptable,
19
and the League of Women Voters characterized the
weekend voting opportunities and weekday hours as insufficient.
20
Husted also set statewide early
voting dates for the November general election, which, once again, excluded Sundays. However, in
a lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party, a federal
judge ruled that county boards of elections must be open on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday
before each election during business hours in order to preserve the right for all Ohioans to cast a
ballot.
21

Gov. Kasich also approved SB 205, which bars county boards of elections from mailing unsolicited
absentee ballots to voters. Only the secretary of state would be able to mail the ballots, and only
with specific funding from the legislature.
22
The law also demands that absentee voters fill out more
information when completing a ballot in order for the ballot to be counted.
23

Progressives in Ohio are working to pass a constitutional amendment establishing a voters bill of
rights through the ballot measure process. Though Attorney General Mike DeWine originally
rejected the summary language for the proposal, he and the Ohio Ballot Board approved the revised
language and decided that the measure should appear as one proposal on the ballot rather than
splitting it up into several amendments. Some of the proposed measured in the bill of rights would be
minimum hours for early voting (12 hours during the weekend before
Election Day and 10 hours each day during the preceding week),
current voter identification standards, absentee ballot procedures, and
online voter registration.
24
Backers now have until July 2 to collect
385,247 signatures for the measure to appear on the ballot.
25
The
Amendment would also preclude legislators from passing more
expansive voter ID laws in the future,
26
which could be a crucial
provision, as House Republicans introduced a voter ID law in
September 2013, though the bill has not yet come up for a vote in the
House.
27
Democratic candidates Nina Turner and Ed FitzGerald have
endorsed the proposed bill of rights.
28

Secretary of State Husteds office will lead the process of reviewing
petitions in favor of this and other statewide initiatives, including a
proposed right-to-work amendment,
29
a personhood amendment that
would classify a fertilized egg as a person, and a measure that would
overturn the statewide constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
30

Husted will also chair the board that prescribes and certifies the ballot
language.
31


19
Pelzer, Jeremy, Husted sets statewide early-voting hours for general election; Sundays not included, Cleveland.com, Feb. 25,
2014.
20
Hallett, Joe, Husted sets early voting for primaries, The Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 16, 2014.
21
Borchardt, Jackie, Federal court orders Ohio restore early voting hours on 3 days before Election Day, Cleveland.com, June 11,
2014.
22
Higgs, Robert, Kasich signs voting bills that end Golden Week and limit distribution of absentee ballots, Cleveland.com, Feb. 21,
2014.
23
House panel approves bill to limit early voting, absentee ballot mailings, The Toledo Blade, Dec. 11, 2013.
24
Borchardt, Jackie, Supporters of an Ohio Voters Bill of Rights can now collect signatures to put issue on November Ballot,
Cleveland.com, March 13, 2014.
25
DeWine rejects language needed to gather petitions for Ohio voter bill of rights, The Toledo Blade, Feb. 13, 2014.
26
Lopez, German Ohio Activists Push Voter Bill of Rights, Cincinnati City Beat, Jan. 17, 2014.
27
Ohio HB 269, Open States, Accessed Feb. 16, 2014.
28
Hester, Brian, Ohio Democratic Candidates Endorse Ohio Voters Bill of Rights, Ohio Democratic Party, Accessed March 17,
2014.
29
Johnson, Alan, Petitions seek right-to-work vote in 2014, The Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 15, 2013.
30
Pelzer, Jeremy, Groups continue push for a variety of ballot issues in 2014, Cleveland.com, Jan. 2, 2014.
31 Ohio Ballot Board, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, Accessed May 22, 2014.

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2014
Husted will face challenger Nina Turner in 2014. Turner is a former Cleveland City Councilwoman
and currently serves as a state Senator, representing parts of Cuyahoga and Lake Counties.
32

An April 2014 poll conducted by Public Policy Polling found Turner leading Husted with a 1 point
margin, 45% to 44%.
33

Through early June, Husted reported having $2,188,729 cash on handthats more than four times
Turners, who reported having $488,957 cash on hand. If elected, Turner would be the first African
American Democrat to be elected to a statewide office in Ohio.
34
Turner considered a 2012
Congressional run against Democratic Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, but eventually withdrew form
the race.
35
Turner has been a frequent critic of Husteds policies toward ballot box access. Last fall,
she told an audience in Akron, The policies being pushed right now are immoral. People are being
faced with obstacles to thwart their access to vote.
36

Turner has already racked up endorsements from the Ohio Democratic Party and progressive
groups such as Emilys List, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, SEIU District 1199, the Ohio AFL-
CIO, UAW Region 2B and several UFCW locals. Husted will receive support from the conservative
PAC SOS for SoS, which hopes to raise $10 million to spend in nine states in 2014, including Ohio.
37



32
Meet Nina, Nina Turner for Secretary of State, accessed January 22, 2014.
33
Hester, Brian, PPP Poll Shows Ohio Governors Race A Dead Heat, Ohio Democratic Party, April 17, 2014.
34
Henry J. Gomez, Nina Turner announces bid for Ohio secretary of state; Democrat hopes to unseat Jon Husted, The Plain
Dealer, July 1, 2013.
35
Eaton, Sabrina, State Sen. Nina Turner drops congressional primary bid against Rep. Marcia Fudge, The Plain Dealer, Dec. 30,
2011.
36
Stephanie Warsmith, Democratic candidate for secretary of State Nina Turner calls GOP attempts to limit voting immoral, Akron
Beacon Journal, Sept. 12, 2013.
37
Tal Kopan, PAC Targets State Secretary Races, Politico, January 21, 2014.