SECRETARY LAROSE WINS U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION 2020 CLEARINGHOUSE AWARD

LaRose is One of Just
Four Secretaries of State
Recognized for Annual
Award

COLUMBUS – The annual “Clearie”
awards, hosted by the U.S. Election
Assistance Commission, recognized
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose
for innovative voter outreach and poll
worker recruitment programs that led
to Ohio’s most successful election ever.
Previous state records were shattered
with 8+ million Ohioans registered and
almost 6 million ballots cast producing
an all-time high 74% statewide voter
turnout.

Historically, 65% of Ohio’s poll workers
have been over the age of 60, making
the dangers of COVID-19 a significant
obstacle towards making sure
polling locations were fully staffed on
Election Day. As a result of Secretary
LaRose’s groundbreaking poll worker
recruitment efforts, more than 56,000
Ohioans were trained and ready to
serve as poll workers, exceeding
the statewide goal that represented
150% of the minimum number of poll
workers needed on Election Day.
This number was updated online
weekly leading up to the election on
Ohio’s first-ever poll worker tracker to
encourage recruitment.

“Ohio wouldn’t have had our most
successful election ever without the
56,000 patriotic Ohioans who stepped
up when our state needed them,” said
LaRose. “This award belongs to each
one of them.”
137 local and state programs were
submitted to the Election Assistance
Commission (EAC), with winners
selected by two independent panels
of election officials from the EAC’s
advisory boards.
“The number of Clearie submissions
highlights that even though this was
a challenging election year, officials
continue to modernize and develop
programming that will serve as helpful
best practices for the coming years,”
said EAC Chairman Donald Palmer.
“The job of an election official is never
done, and we hope to see even more
submissions and exceptional examples
in 2021. The Clearie winners and all
election officials should be incredibly
proud of the work they did to ensure
a successful 2020 election. These
best practices are valuable resources
as officials continue to administer
elections during the pandemic and for
years to come.”
Secretary LaRose was one of just four
Secretaries of State to win a Clearie,
with the rest of the awards going to
local boards of elections and elections
administrators.
Results of Poll Worker Recruitment:
– Goal for Committed and Trained Poll
Workers: 55,165
– Minimum Number of Poll Workers
Required to Staff All
Locations: 36,775
– Current Number of Committed Poll
Workers: 56,789

Poll Worker Recruitment Efforts:

Professionals Getting Education Credit to
Serve
– Lawyers for Liberty — Attorneys received
required continuing legal education
credits for being a poll workers this year.
1,072 lawyers served as poll worker under
this program.
– The Accountancy Board of Ohio (ABO)
allowed Ohio Certified Public Accountants
(CPAs) to obtain required Continuing
Public Education (CPE) general credits for
CPAs serving as poll workers in 2020.
– The Ohio Real Estate Commission
awarded three hours of core law
continuing education credit to active and
inactive Ohio Real Estate Licensees who
served as a poll worker during the Nov. 3,
2020 election.
– Social workers earned Continuing
Education Unit (CEU) credits through the
National Association of Social Workers
(NASW) for serving as poll workers on
Election Day

Give a Day for Democracy

– Partnered with businesses to offer
employees the day off to be poll workers.
Many business, non-profits and publicsector entities around Ohio joined this
effort, including The Ohio State University.

Second Call to Duty

– This initiative asked veterans who took
an oath to defend their country to defend
democracy on November 3rd.

Youth at the Booth

In Ohio, 17-year-old high school seniors
can serve as poll workers! This proved
to be a great way to engage high school
students in the voting process.

Voter Registration Outreach Programs:

The “Raise a Glass to Democracy”
voter registration campaign began as
a brainstorm between the Secretary of
State’s office and Rhinegeist Brewery. With
Rhinegeist’s creative support, more than
50 Ohio breweries signed up to encourage
civic engagement and boost voter
registration by creating a new beer and/or
using the program labels. Many breweries
had their beers ready for sale at their
respective locations by early September,
well ahead of the October 5th registration
deadline. The label promotes the VoteOhio.
gov website while also allowing each
brewer to include their own branding.
Partnering with craft breweries, an
important representation of Ohio small
business, not only expanded outreach
on the message of voter registration and
updating current registration information,
but also helped brewery owners and
employees weather the COVID storm
that many small businesses are facing.
An updated map of each participating
brewery was published for Ohioans to
know which breweries were participating.

Secretary LaRose also launched “Styling
for Democracy. Now Vote!” – a partnership
with barbershops and salons, and the
schools that feed into them, to reach more
Ohio communities. For generations, beauty
salons and barbershops have served as
special places in neighborhoods of color
– as much a social hub as they are an
economic engine. They are places not only
to get hair care services, but sanctuaries
where neighbors can discuss politics and
the issues of importance in the community.
The partnership was designed to
encourage members of their community to
sign up to be a poll worker on November
3rd, register