COLUMBUS, Ohio—A trans congressional hopeful in Ohio was exempted after her campaign paperwork failed to list her “deadname” on campaign paperwork, so Democrats have introduced a bill to stop this from happening again.
In response to the Stark County Board of Elections’ decision in January to forbid Democratic candidate Vanessa Joy from running for Ohio House District 50, House Bill 467, which requires filing candidates to record both their current and previous names if they have used them for five years, was introduced on Wednesday.
Joy, who changed her name in 2022, filed a valiant appeal against the decision, arguing, among other things, that she would have followed the law even though no notice of it was made on the promotional materials or the state’s member guide, nor did elections officials inform her until it was too late.
Arienne Childrey and Bobbie Arnold, both of whom are trans, filed for the state legislature this year without mentioning on their promotional paperwork that they had changed their names within the previous five years. Regional elections officials, however, made an unrequited decision to drop either of their names from the vote.
Due to this voting period, when trans Ohioans filed to run for governor in response to GOP lawmakers’ push to advance House Bill 68 and a number of other anti-transgender measures, the state’s prior-name condition that has been in place for years has been invoked.
If candidates in Ohio received a judge’s order to change their legal name, they would not be required to list their most recent names on election papers under HB467. Individuals who changed their names because they were married or any state or local elected officials who had recently complied with the law are currently exempt under current legislation.
By including a space on campaign paperwork for listing names and requiring the Ohio secretary of state to mention it in its website Candidate Requirement Guide, the new legislation may also attempt to ensure that potential candidates are aware of the prior-name disclosure rule. According to state representative Michele Grim, a Toledo Democrat co-sponsoring HB467, taking those steps would prevent transgender Ohioans who haven’t yet legally changed their names from unwittingly breaking the law.
According to Grim, some trans people are offended when others refer to them by their “deadnames,” which refer to the names they used before gender transition. According to Grim, discrimination is applied to transgender individuals who don’t list their dead names.
“We need to make sure everyone has the opportunity to run for office,” Grim said. “We shouldn’t be disqualifying people just because they didn’t disclose their deadname.”
The process of changing a person’s name officially requires extensive communication, including notifying the public that the name change is taking place, according to state representative Beryl Piccolantonio, a Democrat from suburban Columbus who is the other result co-sponsor of the bill.
“From my perspective, it doesn’t seem like something that should be very controversial,” Piccolantonio said about her bill.
Piccolantonio said she spoke with Joy, Childrey, and Arnold, as well as several elections officials from several counties, while drafting the bill to ensure it had adequately addressed the problem.
Grim and Piccolantonio noted that Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, told The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com newspaper board in January that changes should be made to ensure that transgender individuals aren’t kept off the ballot because of the previous-name law.
But, all 16 co-sponsors of HB467 are Democrats. According to Grim and Piccolantonio, they sent co-sponsor calls to all 66 GOP House members who are currently serving.
It’s unusual for Democrats to introduce legislation without the assistance of a Democratic co-sponsor because Republicans have supermajorities in both the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate. Even if HB467 doesn’t pass the legislature before the current session ends in December, Grimm claimed that the legislation will still bring attention to the problem.
House GOP official Pat Melton said House Speaker Jason Stephens, a Lawrence County Republican, is reviewing HB467 and “will watch and check it as it goes through the legislative process.”
In an interview on Thursday, Joy stated that she hoped the legislation would pique Republican support, especially given that Caitlyn Weyer, a Republican judicial candidate, was likewise disqualified earlier this month from running for a violation of the prior-name disclosure requirement.
Weyer is not trans. Instead, she failed to put on her promotional documents that, in 2020, she officially took the nickname of her lifelong companion, though the two are not legally married.
“I’m sure there are more candidates who are technically serving illegally under this law,” Joy said, “if people start looking into election backgrounds and complaint stories.” “Because nobody knew about it – aside from Stark County.”
Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
