Latest / Taking Initiative / Meet Ohio's Secretary of State Candidates: Bryan Hambley (Democratic Party)
Transcript
- Laura Lucarelli: Welcome to Taking Initiative, a podcast presented by Ohio Ballot Protection. I am joining you today with my co-host, Pat Blackmon. Hello, Pat. are also joined today by Bryan Hambley, one of the candidates running for Ohio's Secretary of State. Thank you for joining us, Bryan. Bryan: Thank you for having me, Laura and Pat. It's great to be with you. Patricia Blackmon: It is excellent to be with you and to be with my co-host Laura again is very, very nice. Yeah. Laura Lucarelli: Go. We're having fun. So thanks for joining us. we just want to remind audience why we're here. In May of 2026, this year, Ohioans will vote in the primaries for candidates for Secretary of State. We've talked quite a bit about how our Secretary of State impacts citizen ⁓ initiatives directly. We've invited all of the candidates for Secretary of State to be interviewed on our podcast. Each candidate will be asked the same questions, and it's important for both the candidates and our audience to know we are not endorsing any of the candidates. We want instead to present you their answers so you can learn about the candidates and make a decision for yourself. So, Pat, ⁓ can you tell us what the Secretary of State does? ⁓ Patricia Blackmon: I love this opportunity to tell a candidate what the Secretary of State does. It's beyond funny. But anyway, I'll tell you what I've learned. The Secretary of State has three primary roles. Voter registration, election integrity, and corporate licensing. That's the overall big picture. But the small picture, not a real small picture, is what the Secretary of State does with the elections. it oversees 88 counties in Ohio, because 88 have board of elections. ⁓ And ⁓ it deals with cybersecurity, fraud. ⁓ It trains officers, maintains election records. And the biggest one that is interesting to our podcast is the Ohio Ballot Board. The Secretary of State is the chair, and there only five members. So it's a big responsibility for the Secretary of State, actually. And what you do is make sure that the language that is ⁓ on ballot is a single issue. And so it's ⁓ a two consecutive year and this is the election year for the Secretary of State. Bryan: Pat, I'll tell you, I'm a Democrat running in Ohio. I'd take one term in cash right now. Laura Lucarelli: So Bryan, I could introduce you as an adult leukemia physician from Cincinnati, but probably better for you in a couple words. Tell us who are you and how do you see your role in defending democracy? Bryan: Thank you for that. Thanks for the invitation to be here. My name is Bryan Hambley. I'm a leukemia doctor in Cincinnati. ⁓ My wife Jan is a trauma surgeon here and we have kids. We are six and eight years old and they go to our public school down the street in Loveland. I believe believe that gerrymandering in Ohio is an upstream problem for Ohio voters. And that the role of the Secretary of State, especially right now at this moment in our democracy, should focus on three things. One, we need fair districts. We need a Secretary of State who believes that politicians should not be drawing their own districts. And we need a ballot board and a Secretary of State that writes fair, clear, honest ballot language for every constitutional amendment. Whether it's 2024 related to gerrymandering or any amendment that comes before Ohio voters. And third, I think the Secretary of State needs to be making it easy and fair for every Ohio citizen to vote. You know, to Pat's your point, the Secretary of State has a tremendous amount of power, particularly in the ballot board. so I was very looking forward to this conversation because seen that power used in a negative way to undermine Ohio voters. We need that power to be used to strengthen Ohio voters, so we can strengthen our democracy. Patricia Blackmon: Can you help us understand this process called the direct democracy? Bryan: In Ohio, we are fortunate to have a system where citizens can put ballot initiatives on the ballot, like for a constitutional amendment, like we did in 2024, and have a 50% vote, where if the majority of Ohioans think something should be changed in our law, it can get changed. To live in a democracy like that, it's really critical because if citizens see our legislators, state senators, our governor, not acting on something that's a priority to them, They have the option to go statewide to the citizens. It is not an easy process. You have to get hundreds of thousands of signatures across the state, and then you have to win a campaign. But unlike some states that make it hard and put a higher threshold than 50% for some reason, it doesn't make any sense to me. In Ohio, fortunately, we have a 50% plus one margin that citizens can pass a ballot initiative or constitutional amendment. It is essential to have that component of direct democracy, it is a backstop to a legislature that stops responding to people. That's why this role is very important. Laura Lucarelli: You also mentioned the ballot board, and it is possible people in the audience do not realize the Secretary of State is basically the chair of the ballot board, correct? Hypothetical question you, Bryan. How would you handle an initiative that is presented to the ballot board that you oppose? Bryan: Yeah. And I might take one step back to describe it to listeners that might not be familiar with the ballot board. The ballot board in Ohio is different than the redistricting commission that has seven members, including the governor and auditor. The ballot board in Ohio has five members, two Democrats from the legislature, Republicans from the legislature, and the secretary of state is the fifth and deciding vote. This was just an accident of the Ohio constitution because the ballot board writes that ballot language that you see when you flip your ballot over and vote on constitutional amendments. But that is why the secretary of state controls the ballot board. It's a five member board and they're always a deciding vote. I believe that ballot language should not be used as a political tool to win a vote. Ballot language should be used to inform voters in a direct democracy. And so I think ballot language should be clear. It should be simple. It should be written in plain English where the average Ohio voter can understand it. And I know there's some questions later about exactly what does that mean, but I think that's the broad strokes. I think that should apply whether I agree or disagree with the goals of an individual constitutional amendment. Patricia Blackmon: You know, I'm trying to figure out, we misinterpreting that language in the Constitution and in the statute with respect to a single issue? Do you have a routine or something that you use, that you would use to monitor whether that ballot does present a single issue? Because technically, the Secretary of State can say, you have not met the requirements. And I don't think the Supreme Court has overruled them on this issue. It has upheld them on some of them but I don't think they've overruled but I'm not sure. Bryan: single issue requirement, what that means for me is that an voter can understand easily ⁓ what given policy ⁓ or closely policies would do and how that would impact our democracy and how our state works. So for instance, the anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment, that was a complex amendment in terms of the processes, but I think it was a single issue, the creation of a new redistricting commission. the appointment of those members by retired judges. While it did multiple things, I believe it was ⁓ a single issue. I think if we try to snake three, four, five different issues that may be only loosely affiliated where a given Ohio voter couldn't understand it as a single set of policy changes, that's where I think they should be run separately. This, as you may know, Pat, come up. because there been discussions amongst voting rights advocates of a voter bill of rights or a panel of policies put in. ⁓ I think have to really define what that would look like to make sure that it would meet that criteria, but think it can be done. Patricia Blackmon: I think one of ⁓ ones that fascinates me is when the ballot is so long and so ⁓ and you're trying to get through ⁓ ⁓ I'm just wondering what should the role of the Secretary of State be in making sure that the voter understands clearly what is happening on ⁓ ballot. Bryan: Yeah. So I, I've been traveling the state. I've gone to 73 different counties. I've done 309 events. Whenever I go to a new county, I'll often meet with the board of elections employees, Republican and Democrat as I'm traveling. And so I was, I was down in Hocking County and Logan, the county seat and went to the board of elections headquarters, had a great two hour meeting and discussion of like, where, where are we as a democracy in Hocking County? And one story they wanted to tell was just to your point, Pat. ⁓ They were at a polling place, this board of elections employee, and they saw an older woman coming in and she was using one of those rollators that you see to kind of hobble in, got her ballot, and then she hobbled over to mark her ballot and vote. And she was there for a very long time. She was there for about 20 minutes, much longer than the average voter. And then she took her ballot and her rollator and hobbled back over to the check-in desk. And before this employee even heard her question, she knew exactly what she was going to ask in November of 2024. And this older woman just pointed at the back of her ballot at the constitutional amendment. And she just very honestly asked, I don't understand this. Could somebody explain what this means? You know, and as you both know, I'm a poll worker in Warren County. You actually legally can't answer that question. Laura Lucarelli: same. Bryan: What does that mean? And this is woman in a very Republican county, Hocking County, largely votes Republican and largely voted for gerrymandering in place. I don't know how that woman wanted to vote, but she was absolutely cheated of the right to have her voice heard. That's wrong. Whether you're Democrat or Republican, that is wrong. And so I think that's what I've learned traveling the state and meeting board of elections officials who I think want a more honest democracy, no matter what party they mark their ballots for. Laura Lucarelli: I'm going to switch topics ⁓ here and talk about signature requirements. What is your opinion about the signature requirements to get something on the ballot and understand they're slightly different for referendum statute and ⁓ amendment, constitutional amendment? Bryan: Yeah. Absolutely don't think it should be harder. I don't think we should raise the signatures required. I was a part of the signature collection effort for the issue one, Citizens Not Politicians campaign, where we gathered about 700,000 plus signatures. It was a lot of work. Modestly decreasing that may make some sense, but I haven't seen any specific proposals. Absolutely, we should not go with some of what the Republicans have said, which is raising the number of signatures. The Republicans have advocated for ⁓ making harder. Laura Lucarelli: a lot. Bryan: to pass ballot initiatives requiring 60% rather than 50%. Republicans have sometimes even advocated for eliminating the amendment and referendum process entirely. And so those are three things that I would not support. Patricia Blackmon: You know, I've been thinking about the ballot initiatives and all the ones that have happened in the past years. And I know you pointed to some specifics of what you would do differently, but could you, do you have one that stands out in your mind about what happened in the past that could have been different? Bryan: Yeah, I'll say two, if that's all right. First, it is not forever that we've had a secretary of state willing to write dishonest ballot language to intentionally confuse Ohio voters. This is a relatively new thing to happen so frequently. In 2023, our secretary of state wrote this ballot language on the abortion rights amendment that was medically not accurate. As a physician... I saw it and just couldn't believe that this was going to pass the muster with the Supreme Court. I think that was wrong. And then in 2024, our secretary of state went even further when he wrote a summary that should have been three to five sentences in my view for an independent redistricting commission. And he took the majority of the back page of most people's ballots in the state of Ohio and wrote this confusing double negative laden ballot language that was intentionally designed to confuse voters. I think that's wrong. That's what I think it has devolved to. I think we need a secretary of state who writes that language much differently with the idea of being succinct, accurate, and making sure the average Ohio voter knows what they are voting on to make their opinion heard. Laura Lucarelli: So as we got started, Pat gave an overview of the Secretary of State office. We're wondering, how familiar are you as a non-politician right now with the structure of the office? And day one, you're in charge. Are there any changes you are looking potentially to make? Bryan: Former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and I were talking about this few months ago. Secretary of State's office really administers statewide policy regarding elections, but the backbone of our election system is the individual counties board of elections. So the Secretary of State gives a lot of direction and directives to those boards of elections. But the grunt work and the administering of elections relies on each county's board of elections. The office itself has about 150 employees and has 60, 70 million dollar a year budget. One thing that I think needs to change with the changing of administrations is in an office with 150 employees, our current Secretary of State made about 40 political appointees when he came into office. And we know now why he did that. He needed jobs for people who were going to run Senate campaign a few years later. And so he housed him in the Secretary of State's office, firing a lot of career civil servants who knew what they were doing. That is not what the Secretary of State should do. We should be much more like Justice Brunner, who was the Secretary of State and brought in a political team of about 15 employees. more natural 10% turnover rather than almost a third of the office to bring in your own political people and make it a hyper-partisan office. ⁓ So there precedent for how to do this right on day one, bringing in the team, and then we've seen over the last seven years how to do it wrong. Patricia Blackmon: the things interests me is what are you hearing from the public in terms of what they know about ballot initiative? And I'll give you an example. I go to events and I see people walking around with petitions ⁓ and they say, sign this. And I'm not even thinking about it. ⁓ Later, I realized, that was one, the reproductive rights, or that was issue two, ⁓ the ballot. I think I got that right. But it doesn't stick with me. How do we make sure in this broad range electronics and how people are receiving their information that they're actually ⁓ going to the computer becoming knowledgeable? And is there something the of State Office can do? I know they have their own system, but I'm just trying to figure out how do you reach the community? Bryan: Yeah, it's a huge challenge. And to your question, Pat, about what am I hearing from maybe the average voter that is not collecting signatures or pounding the pavement for these campaigns. Across Ohio, people come with concerns of things that aren't being addressed. And the two issues that come up more than any other are the public schools and healthcare and healthcare costs. And so when I'm talking about gerrymandering, I try not to come in and say, these are my five point policy proposals to how to fix gerrymandering in Ohio. I start with, you know, your aunt's bankrupt from her breast cancer diagnosis because... Your politicians are not solving real problems and they are not listening to you. And that a chief reason for that is that the politicians are drawing their own districts and they know they're going to win or know they're going to lose before they ever run a campaign. That's what's so exciting about a competitive primary. What Ohio voters think will actually matter on May 5th. There is a competitive primary. You couldn't have two more different candidates running for the Democratic nomination for secretary of state and Ohio voters will actually get to choose and make their voice heard. That makes me excited for democracy in general, and it makes me excited for what Ohio voters will do if they get a chance to have an independent redistricting commission and more competitive districts. But I think we have to connect it to things people are feeling in their lives. And so I try not to just talk about gerrymandering. I say gerrymandering is a hurdle to your public school getting the funding they need. And I think we get a lot more back and forth ⁓ Boy, as a Democrat, we need to tell more stories and connect stories to people's lives, to our democracy. And I think we have not done well at that. And the results show in the election returns. We have not been connecting with the average Ohio voter. Laura Lucarelli: Which leads into my next question. What do you think are the biggest challenges to Ohioans related to voting and how will you help us overcome them? Bryan: Number one is our Secretary of State should be the biggest advocate for Ohio voters. And the clearest hurdle to Ohio voters having the kind of democracy that they deserve is gerrymandering in our state. And so I believe the first job of our next Secretary State should be the lead cheerleader for an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment in 2027. We should not wait any longer. and write clear, fair ballot language. But to tell you exactly what this looks like, if I win in November of 2026, January '27, we are hitting the road. advocating for Ohio voters by advocating for an independent redistricting commission. We were so close in '24, our secretary of state cheated us of that right. I want it back on the ballot in November of 2027, not to wait another year. Second, we need to make it easy and fair for everybody to vote. And the way we've been describing this as I travel around, nobody should have to drive more than 20 minutes to drop off their ballot. Nobody should ever have to wait more than 20 minutes in line to cast their ballot. As you two may know, We had lines for early votes some days in Columbus last year longer than two hours in 2024. Nobody likes to wait in line. And yes, it's true. Most of the people who get in line will stay in line and vote. But we all know they're on their phones texting their friend, their brother, their sister. And the text goes something like this. Hey, how's the line at the polling place? And the text back is, it's two hours long. And the other, the person on the other end of that phone that might be thinking of voting. They're not coming that day. And they may not come at all. I think that is a key reason that Ohio has some of the lower voter participation rates in the entire country. It's not that our citizens don't believe in democracy. It's that our politicians haven't been following through on it. Laura Lucarelli: What is the follow through on that? I'm going to ask you a follow up question. Bryan: Yeah. I'll start with repeating the two things. No more than 20 minutes to drop off your ballot. So what does that look like? In large counties, and we have a lot of geographically large counties, a board of elections should be able to have two or three ballot drop boxes. Nobody wants to drive an hour round trip to drop off a ballot. You should also be able to drop off an older family member or somebody who's got trouble getting out for some reason or a work schedule that makes it tough to get out for some reason. You should be able to drop off their ballot too. This used to be the case. It wasn't that long ago. In terms of early vote, we need hours and a schedule where nobody has to stand in these long lines. No Ohioan wants to stand in a really long line to cast a ballot. Some of these lines are by design. We have consolidated the number of polling locations. We have understaffed in some areas. This suppresses votes. So some of this can be done by the Secretary State. A lot of it needs to be done between the Secretary of State partnering with county boards of elections, but that's what it would look like. Patricia Blackmon: It's very interesting. You know, one thing that came to my mind when you were talking is if you're purging people off the rolls, why are you not being concerned about long people stay in lines? Because if you've done that job, then you clearly have not set a system up that would allow for people to just ⁓ vote anytime they want not. not anytime they want, but just be maybe committing some kind of fraud if that's what you're thinking this about. Bryan: Yeah. And I'll take us back a few years. Ohio used to be a part of an interstate collaboration called the ERIC system, where our voter rolls were updated in partnership with other states. Or if you move from one, from Ohio to a different state, both states voter rolls then got updated when they registered in the new state. ⁓ Ohio citizens actually think this happens because the technology has been around for 15 years to do this. It was working really well. Democratic and Republican states were both members. So what happened? A right-wing website said that the ERIC system was a liberal conspiracy. And Frank LaRose, our current Secretary State, was getting ready to run as a Republican for the United States Senate. And he was worried about the right wing of his party attacking him for being a part of it. So Frank LaRose pulled us out. of the ERIC system, the best way to update voter rolls and prevent unintentional voter fraud. What did he replace it with? He replaced it with a hyper-partisan strategy that kicks off as many Democrats as he can and keeps as many Republicans as he can on the voter rolls. And how do they do that? They frequency of moving and instability of housing ⁓ a metric where those folks have a harder time registering and keeping their registration updated. And he knows how those people who move more frequently usually vote. That's how he has suppressed voters that don't usually vote for his party. Laura Lucarelli: So we're wrapping up here. You've talked quite a bit about your vision and things that you see are opportunities such as ⁓ getting a redistricting back as a constitutional amendment proposal soon, working on accessibility of voting. Are there any other goals for your office that you haven't had an opportunity to talk about during our interview? Bryan: Yeah. You know, we often don't end up talking too much about the business services aspect, but just to frame this, our current secretary of state spent $20 million of Ohio taxpayer money to run an extra in 2023 that would have raised the bar for Ohio voters to 60 % to pass a constitutional amendment. That was it. ⁓ And lost. Laura Lucarelli: and lost. And they lost. Bryan: That was an extra election that cost $20 million that was designed to help him win a Republican primary for United States Senate and undermine Ohio voters. That's almost a third of the budget from that year was spent on that kind of gimmick. So what's the alternative? Now, I think Ohio businesses should have the lowest filing fees in the Midwest. I think we should lower our small business and new business filing fee from $99 to $75. I think as a Democrat, we have ceded small business partnership to the Republicans for far too long. ⁓ businesses are looking at tariffs. They're looking at a system that doesn't work for them. They're looking at very high healthcare costs. And they don't have allies in the Republican Party. And I believe they need to see a Democrat that is willing to work with small businesses to make it just easier to open a business and a little bit cheaper. ⁓ You know, $25 reduction, does that mean a ton for a small business? It means a little, but it's also a signal, right? Now, when Frank LaRose wasted $20 million on his own political ambition, that was a signal. He didn't care about small businesses in Ohio. He cared about his own ambition. We need to not do that kind of gimmick. We need to replace it with making it more affordable for businesses to register in Ohio. And with technology, we can do that in a way that is absolutely doable within the Secretary of State's office budget. Patricia Blackmon: Well, this has been wonderful, a great discussion, and I really appreciate you joining us. And one of the things I think about as maybe winding down is this. We started in the 1800s with the General Assembly appointing the Secretary of State. We ended up with the voters electing the Secretary of State. Have you ever thought about what would happen if we made the Secretary of State's office nonpartisan. And it's just working for the people. Bryan: I think. I think it should be nonpartisan. would require, yeah. Patricia Blackmon: I think it should be nonpartisan, but I worry about who will make the appointments. And then could that end up in being political? Bryan: My view is it should be a nonpartisan race that is an elected office, just like we used to have with Supreme Court justices. In part, because if you're running election policy and procedures in the state of Ohio, you should really be calling balls and strikes, not a voice for your own party. I know that if I ran in a nonpartisan race, yes, I would have. Patricia Blackmon: I see. ⁓ let's see. Bryan: I'm a progressive Democrat, I would have that but I think it matter to Ohio voters if they see that. ⁓ We unfortunately been moving the wrong direction in Ohio, where we have a Supreme Court that used to be a nonpartisan race and now has had partisan identifiers added to it. I think in Ohio, we're moving the wrong direction. Laura Lucarelli: We haven't asked how you are preparing yourself for the role. Is there, you know, you've been talking to lot of people, you've been doing a lot of visiting. What do you think the top couple of things you've done to be ready run ⁓ day one in role? Bryan: First, we've done 309 events in 73 counties and I listen more than I talk. And if you come to any of our house parties, there's a lot of listening before there's any talking. Second. We have a policy advisory committee that includes election law advocates, activists, people who've been experienced, people who helped write the ballot initiative in 2020 or the constitutional amendment in 2024 about gerrymandering. We meet every two months, both to inform me about policy issues that might come up in a debate with Representative Russo or in a question session with a journalist. But that group will morph into a transition group where we identify talented election lawyers and staff. who would staff an administration if we're fortunate enough to win. I think we have built a team not just to win a Democratic primary, we have built a team to try to win a general election. and then transition into governing. As a physician in Cincinnati, I led a blood cancer group. It's about a $250 million a year organization. There's more than 500 employees. In 2020, we were the worst program in the nation for adult leukemia and bone marrow transplant care. Now we're in the top 10%. I've seen how to build complex teams, to have long-term visions, and that's what we need is a long-term vision of rebuilding our democracy in Ohio. Laura Lucarelli: Thank you so much for your time today. We really enjoyed getting to know you and wish you well on your campaign. Bryan: Thank you both. Thanks for facilitating this conversation. Have a great afternoon. Patricia Blackmon: Thank you. Thank you.