Wednesday, April 28, 1999
Mailing on mayor mistaken for ballot
City council's attempt to clarify Issue 4 confuses
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati City Council spent $47,000 to mail 215,430 copies of the Issue 4 ballot language to Cincinnati voters, believing it would shed light on the direct mayoral election plan.
As it turns out, it seems to have spread some fog over the May 4 election.
Bruce Taylor, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said his office has been inundated in the past few days with calls from voters wondering if the mailing from the city is an actual ballot that they should mail in, instead of going to the polls May 4.
“There are a lot of people confused about this,” Mr. Taylor said.
The mailing from the city contains a cover letter from Sandy Sherman, clerk of council, explaining that council voted to send the ballot language to all registered voters in the city.
Attached is a one-page summary of the charter amendment, detailing how Issue 4 would call for direct election of the mayor and give the mayor additional powers, including veto power over council legislation.
But the page also contains two boxes at the bottom — one marked “yes” and one marked “no.” Those boxes have some voters confused.
“People are marking one of the boxes and mailing them in,” Mr. Taylor said.
Mr. Taylor said that, except for those who are voting in the May 4 election by an official absentee ballot obtained from the board of elections, people will have to show up at the polls.
“I expect we are going to get a lot more of these in the mail and a lot more phone calls because these things are still showing up in people's mailboxes,” Mr. Taylor said.
On a 5-4 vote, council last week authorized Mr. Sherman to spend $47,000 to hire a Lockland firm to mail out the ballot language to all registered voters in the city.
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