COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio senator wants to protect election workers like poll workers from any type of threat or intimidation.
Senator Bill DeMora recently introduced Senate Bill 173, which would hide the address of election workers. Right now, people like police officers and judges have their addresses shielded from the public.
“There have been incidents across the country of election workers being threatened by all kinds of threats and harassed. So, this bill shields their addresses from being public,” DeMora said.
DeMora said he was shocked to hear how common it is for poll workers to be threatened.
“They are trying to run safe, fair and clean elections and they get threats for doing this,” he said.
He said the bill has support from people on both sides of the aisle.
“This is not a partisan issue. Both sides want to protect our election workers. Half are Republicans, half are Democrats, so this is bipartisan,” said DeMora.
If passed, this would not go into effect until the 2024 election. So, what is being done now to protect election workers?
“Before every election cycle, we sit down with our partners at the county level, the sheriff’s office, at the city level like Columbus and we sit down and go through security measures for the county,” said Aaron Sellers, the public information officer with the Franklin County Board of Elections.
Sellers said safety is always a topic in poll worker training. He tells poll workers to be aware.
“Be vigilante about the surroundings at polling locations. If you see something that doesn’t look right, then let somebody know,” said Sellers.
Sellers said if someone is at a polling location and not voting or handing out election material, they shouldn’t be there. He added that he is in favor of the newly introduced bill.