A rose by any other name........
Should still smell as sweet? Apparently NOT in Ohio.
Story one:
A transgender candidate in Ohio was disqualified from the state ballot for omitting her former name
Vanessa Joy of was one of four transgender candidates running for state office in Ohio, largely in response to proposed restrictions of the rights of LGBTQ+ people. She was running as a Democrat in House District 50 — a heavily Republican district in Stark County, Ohio — against GOP candidate Matthew Kishman. Joy legally changed her name and birth certificate in 2022, which she says she provided to the Stark County Board of Elections for the March 19 primary race.
But as Joy found out Tuesday, a little-known 1990s state law says that a candidate must provide any name changes within the last five years to qualify for the ballot. Since the law is not currently listed on the candidate requirement guidelines on the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, Joy didn’t know it existed.
Story two:
Transgender candidate facing disqualification now cleared to run despite omitting deadname
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A transgender candidate vying for a seat in the Republican-majority Ohio House was cleared to run Thursday after her certification had been called into question for omitting her former name on qualifying petitions as required by a little-used Ohio elections law.
The Mercer County Board of Elections chose not take up a vote on disqualifying Arienne Childrey, a Democrat from Auglaize County who is one of four transgender individuals campaigning for the Legislature, for not disclosing her previous name — also known as her deadname — on petition paperwork.
Childrey, who legally changed her name in 2020, said she would have provided her deadname if she had known about the law.
The Ohio law, unfamiliar even to many state elections officials, mandates that candidates disclose any name changes in the past five years on their petition paperwork, with exemptions for name changes caused by marriage. But the law isn't listed in the 33-page candidate requirement guide and there is no space on the petition paperwork to list any former names.
Now:
But Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that the law should be amended and that the county boards should stop disqualifying transgender candidates on these grounds. DeWine did not say how it might be amended.
“We shouldn’t be denying ballot access for that reason,” the governor told Cleveland.com’s editorial board. “It certainly should be fixed.”
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