Pictured are Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald (in red tie), the Democratic front -runner for Ohio governor, Cuyahoga County Council President C. Ellen Connally (in necklace)
and county council members Yvonne Conwell ( in White blouse), Pernel Jones Jr. (in blue tie)and Anthony Hairston ( in light-colored tie)

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County Council recently voted along partisan lines and adopted a voting rights law introduced by Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald to counter a discriminatory state legislative law that passed earlier this year that Democrats say is designed to suppress voter participation in Ohio, particularly among poor, elderly and minority voters. (Editor's note: The 11- member Cuyahoga County Council is a distinct and separate governing entity from the 17-member Cleveland City Council, which also adopts laws known as city ordinances. State legislators, through the General Assembly of the Ohio House and Ohio Senate, adopt laws called statutes that can be found in the Ohio Revised Code, the book of chapters of state laws).

The new county law, passed last week by county council, requires the county board of elections to mail unsolicited absentee ballot applications to registered voters in the county, and in contrast to a Republican pushed state law that passed earlier this year that precludes the mailings.  County council members that voted for the law they adopted, and FitzGerald, a licensed attorney and former FBI agent, say that home rule governs and that that is the basis of their authority to adopt the controversial new law. Time and likely looming partisan minded litigation will tell.

All eight Democrats on the 11-member Cuyahoga County Council, including the four Blacks, Yvonne Conwell, Pernel Jones Jr., Anthony Hairston, and County Council President C. Ellen Connally, voted in favor of the new law, while the three Republicans, all White, voted against the measure. 

Meanwhile, the gubernatorial race this year that will likely pit FitzGerald, the Democratic front-runner, against incumbent Republican Gov. John Kasich is tied, some polls show.

"According to the newest numbers from Public Policy Polling, we are now even with Kasich at 44 percent," said FitzGerald Campaign Manager Nick Buis in a press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper. "The takeaway is clear, we have every chance to win this race."

Cuyahoga County includes 59 cities, villages and townships combined, including the largely Black cities of Cleveland, East Cleveland and Warrensville Heights. It is roughly 29 percent Black and is the largest of 88 counties statewide. And requests for absentee ballots in Cuyahoga are the highest statewide and at least 10 times more than any other county in the state, a Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper story said this week.
www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)