CLEVELAND, Ohio — A federal judge shot down a challenge to Ohio’s requirement that voters provide ID when they cast their ballots and disagreed with the argument that the requirement disenfranchises homeless citizens, the elderly or veterans.

We’re talking about U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent’s dismissal of that lawsuit, on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

A group representing homeless people tried to block the Ohio voter law that requires photo IDs. Monday brought a decision in the case. What was it?

Another transgender candidate is getting kicked off the ballot. Who is it, and is this case any different from the one we’ve been discussing over the past week?

This next story is a surprise, given how much time we spend talking about the folks in the Ohio Legislature. Why does 2023 stand out for this less-than-august body of lawmakers?

Former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges had repeated opportunities to keep his prison sentence to a minimum by cooperating with federal investigators. He didn’t, and he now sits in prison for his role in the HB6 bribery and corruption case. What is his latest move to reduce his term?

It’s one Trump sycophant endorsing another in the latest news from Ohio’s senate election. What is it?

Are Cuyahoga County children underserved when it comes to hospital services? Why is Akron Children’s Hospital planting a flag in Cuyahoga County?

We had lots of questions last week when we discussed the discovery of credit card skimmers at Giant Eagle locations, including some in Northeast Ohio. We published a story Monday to answer reader questions about these contraptions. What did we learn?

Cleveland’s lead paint problem is well known, and a lot of that paint is on windows and doors in old houses. How will a new grant help change that?

In news that I hope does not delay Laura Johnston’s return to this podcast Wednesday, the latest nightmare for Boeing is hitting flights at Cleveland Hopkins. How bad is the damage?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:01.879)

It’s been three weeks since Laura Johnston joined us on this podcast. She says she’ll be back tomorrow. We heard from her overnight. She had listened to our episode yesterday when we talked about Trump and his Nazi talk and she had just visited the Anne Frank house. So it was poignant for her. I’m sure she’ll have something to say about that upon her return. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin and Leila Tassi.

We got some stories to talk about. A group representing homeless people tried to block the Ohio voter law that requires photo IDs. Monday brought a decision in the case. Lisa, what was it?

Lisa (00:44.466)

Yeah, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless is one of several plaintiffs in this federal lawsuit, also joined by the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans and the Union Veterans Council.

So federal Judge Donald Nugent granted a summary judgment request in this 2023 lawsuit. The suit protested the requirement for a photo ID at polling places, also limiting drop boxes in counties and shortening early voting times, also known as House Bill 458.

The suit said that the bill disenfranchises homeless, military, elderly, young voters, and black voters, and it’s really unnecessary due to the rarity of voter fraud. The summary judgment request came from Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the Ohio GOP party, and others. They say that House Bill 458-

Changes are common sense and minor and affects only a tiny fraction of Ohio voters. Nugent apparently agreed in his 46-page opinion. He says it’s difficult to imagine how photo ID laws imposes more than a minimal burden.

Chris (01:55.915)

I completely agree with the judge on this. We talked about this very issue on our editorial board yesterday. The idea that a photo ID requirement is onerous has just gotten so far beyond common sense and logic. We need a photo ID to do just about anything. The state has made it fairly simple for anybody to get one, and yet we keep having people saying, oh, this is too onerous. And polls have shown.

Lisa (02:02.026)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (02:24.991)

the photo ID requirement because everybody uses it all the time. I just don’t understand why this keeps being the rub for voting rights advocates. We have some voter rights issues in this state that are clear. The blocking of voting on weekends up until the final one and the refusal to allow counties like Cuyahoga to have multiple drop boxes. That’s just ridiculous. It’s aimed at reducing the vote. But the photo ID, we should stop arguing about that because Ohioans…

feel pretty strongly that you should have one.

Lisa (02:57.11)

Well, and I’ve never understood how people said it was, it made it hard for certain demographics. Like I understand homeless people, I totally get that. But, and the military too, because a lot of them are voting from overseas, but you know, the elderly and young voters and black voters, I’m not sure, you know, why that would be a burden on those groups.

Chris (03:17.503)

You know, Ted died and had a column over the weekend where he was castigating the Republican Party for overreach with multiple issues last year. And we’ve seen the same thing on the Democratic side with this voting rights bill that they’re trying to get put in that Dave Yost rejected because the writing was all bad. And nobody’s really thinking in moderation anymore. Nobody’s thinking in terms of common sense. The voters showed last year.

that they’re common sense with all the issues that were placed before them. They went down kind of the middle in common sense. This is not common sense. I appreciate Nugent for just body slamming this thing because it really had no legitimate grounds and we ought to focus on the real issues about voting. Frank LaRose does not want us to easily vote. He wants to squelch the democratic vote as much as he can. It’s the worst secretary of state we’ve ever seen.

So we probably do need some guardrails in the constitution for that. This was not the way to go. So salute to Nugent for making the quick decision. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right, this is the most outrageous story we’ve seen in a long time. It goes full outrage with what we learned yesterday. Another transgender candidate is getting kicked off the ballot. Leila, who is it and is this case different now from the one we’ve been discussing?

Chris (06:40.143)

I cannot believe this case. I, you know, we kept saying, what does the form say? The guidebook, the big candidate handbook says nothing about it, but was there a spot on the form that said, please list any name you’ve used in the last five years? And there’s not. How in the world can you hold? How, you can’t hold a, look, that’d be like having a law that says you’re required to.

to list your employment on your driver’s license application. And if you don’t, you lose your license for life, right? And there’s no form on the application for your driver’s license to do that. So you fill out the application, filling out the forms that are there. And then because of this law, nobody knows about you lose your license for life. You can’t do that. If it’s a requirement, it’s gotta be on the form. These people should be put back on the ballot immediately.

And this law should be rejected outright because there is no way for a person to know about this. This is one of the most scandalous things I’ve seen in voter laws now. How do you do this?

Lisa (07:55.026)

for voting something that’s more progressive, and that you really, people have to put those things on the ballot. So even if you had those to have original and original, hopefully the 50 people who signed for her at the board of election wouldn’t even see them. So, so. Oh, I don’t, it’s kind of funny. There’s elections, too, but. Mm-hmm. People can be distorted about them. I, I.

Chris (08:12.159)

Well, I don’t I don’t buy that because elections get covered. People do news stories about them. And I we’ve talked about it. I think the voters deserve to know your record. So if you’ve switched your name in the past couple of years and you had activity that might be important to voters in the previous three, they ought to be able to find it out. They’re asking for your trust.

Chris (08:36.891)

Yeah, but you’re presuming people go into the ballot without doing research, and some voters do, but a lot of voters don’t. A lot of voters are looking for information, but it doesn’t matter. You can’t do this without telling them. And look, you and I talked about this yesterday. I wonder how many times this has happened in the past where somebody’s changed their name but it wasn’t on the form, they didn’t fill it out, and nobody did anything. This is anti-transgender. Somebody went looking for these people.

anti-transgender, this is discriminatory, this should be reversed immediately and they should be restored to the ballot. Frank Larose should be speaking up on this. He should be saying, look, this is bad. We should have that on the form. We have failed. It’s unfair to these people. He’ll never do it because it’s Frank Larose, but he should be standing up for these candidates because it’s the right thing to do.

Chris (09:48.783)

Yeah, I know. I know. Yeah, but it doesn’t matter because it wasn’t on the form anyway. Even if married people had to list their name, they wouldn’t have known that because there’s no place anywhere that they are informed of that. And you can’t say ignorance of the law is your problem. If there’s an application form approved by the secretary of state for you to be a candidate, it has to have all the required information on it. This is a

all the elections officials for not having that on the form, if it’s the law. Amazing story. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. This next story is a surprise given how much time we spend talking about the folks in the Ohio Legislature. Lisa, why does 2023 stand out for the less than august body of lawmakers?

Lisa (10:27.838)

Next story is a surprise given how much time we spent talking about the state of Ohio legislation.

Lisa (10:39.138)

Well, to be fair, Chris, a lot of our talk has been on the negative side for the legislature. So but yeah, cleveland.com and Plain Dealer, our crack data analysts look at the state archives going back to 1955 to determine the annual number of bills that are passed during each legislative session. So despite a Republican supermajority, only 16 bills.

Chris (10:43.339)

Hahaha

Lisa (11:03.094)

were signed into law last year. That’s the lowest since the Eisenhower administration, 1955 or thereabouts. Back in 2009, when we had a split legislature, party-wise, 17 bills were passed. In 2019, 24 bills were passed, but then that was during that House and Senate leader feud. So in the previous 40 years…

Ohio averaged about a hundred bills passed and signed into law per year. On odd number of years in this century, the 21st century, they were averaging about 52 bills a year. When asked why they’ve been so unproductive, you know, some people have said divisive politics, term limits that are removing experienced lawmakers from the, from the state house, the house speaker fight between Jason Stevens and Derek Marin, and also the August issue one referendum.

A spokesman for House Speaker Jason Stevens and Senator Matt Huffman said, well, quantity doesn’t necessarily equal quality.

Chris (12:06.855)

There is something to that, right? If you believe that Ohio passes too many laws and too many unneeded regulations, then the dearth of legislation isn’t a terrible thing. It’s just these people spend a lot of time down there. What are they doing? I mean, what they’re doing is all of their game playing and their polarization and their nonsense about transgenders. I mean, if you look at the way they’ve behaved over the past year, it’s pretty reprehensible. But…

Lisa (12:25.047)

Mm-hmm. Mm.

Chris (12:36.043)

than not passing new laws. If we don’t need new laws, that’s okay.

Lisa (12:42.35)

Well, and you know, Huffman did point out that the Senate passed 57 bills, the House passed 83, you know, of course only a handful became law. But it’s interesting that both sides of the aisle maybe are saying that term limits are a problem because Senator Nikki Antonio, the Democrat from Lakewood, says, you know, term limits are pushing out veterans that are more open to compromise. And as we’ve said and talked about, all these newly elected candidates or, you know, candidates coming up.

are, you know, more extreme.

Chris (13:12.883)

Yeah, people open to compromise like Bill Seitz. I mean, come on. We had a whole editorial this weekend saying we should be exploring term limits. The problem with that argument is voters love term limits. To convince voters that taking away term limits will be a good thing, there’s poster children all over the legislature that are the proof against that. Patent is already switching body. If we had true term limits, you could serve in one body for whatever the terms are and then you’re gone. We don’t have that.

They serve in the House, they go to the Senate, they go back to the House. I mean, the president of the Senate believes he’s gonna be the speaker of the House next time around. So I just don’t see Ohio voters ever pulling these out because once these guys get in there, they’re terrible. I mean, what’s his name? Jerry Serino, wouldn’t you love to have terminated him out? By now, he’s been a disaster as a state senator running again for reelection.

Lisa (13:46.399)

Yeah.

Lisa (14:08.487)

Yeah, but you know, and as Leila can attest, I mean, we’ve sat through dozens of, you know, candidate endorsement interviews during election years, which we’ll be doing again, by the way. But you know, when you have a supermajority, you get Democrats that say, hey, I’ve never run for office before, let me run for Congress. You know, so and then some of them get in like Elliot Forehand. So of course, he’s a state lawmaker, but you know, yeah.

Chris (14:27.051)

I’m gonna go.

Chris (14:30.763)

Yeah.

Lisa (14:33.998)

I don’t know. I’m against term limits, but I think voters are the term limits, but I understand why others don’t feel that way.

Chris (14:41.095)

I would agree with you if we got rid of the party primaries. I think the problem with our system is that the parties largely pick our candidates. We don’t have a say. So when you get to November, you pick the lesser of the two evils. And the party primaries were created to get rid of the party boss system a century ago, but the parties have completely corrupted the system. And if we could get rid of those, then I’m all for it. The voters should decide while the parties are in control.

Lisa (14:44.351)

Mm.

Chris (15:09.447)

I’m not against term limits because at least we get rid of some of these bums after they go in and get paid off by the utility companies and make their money and disappear. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges had repeated opportunities to keep his prison sentence to a minimum by cooperating with the feds. He didn’t. And he now sits in prison for his role in the HB6 bribery and corruption case.

Layla, what’s his latest move to reduce his term now that he’s missed all of the easy opportunities?

Chris (16:41.539)

You got to really look at what he did and say it was Moronic. They didn’t want him. They wanted everybody else and they were making a deal. And when you go against the federal government, when they’ve got you and they had the evidence clearly, that’s why he got convicted. You’re going down. I mean, it’s the federal government when they when they’ve got the evidence on you. They’re relentless. We’ve seen it over and over again. They just keep coming at you. And if you don’t make the deal when you’re guilty.

The punishment is far worse than if you make the deal. I don’t get him. He’d be out by now, right? He’s already served six months, I think.

Lisa (17:18.103)

I was trying to figure that out.

Chris (17:20.659)

Yeah, the ego of these guys thinking they can beat it, it just boggles the mind. When the feds have got you, the only thing to do is make the best deal you can. And they offered him a sweetheart deal. I still don’t know why he didn’t take it. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right. We have one Trump sycophant endorsing another in the latest news from Ohio’s Senate election. Lisa, what is it?

Lisa (17:45.31)

One of our favorite congressmen, firebrand Jim Jordan, has endorsed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno for the U.S. Senate primary. And of course, he’s going up against long-term Senator Sherrod Brown.

In a statement from Jordan posted to Moreno’s campaign website, Jordan said that he was proud to stand with President Trump and J.D. Vance in endorsing Moreno. He says he’s a political outsider who’s lived the American dream. His perspective, grit, and conservative values will serve Ohio well. And of course, this is going to be a very closely watched election due to the narrow democratic majority in the Senate.

And because of that, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced an eight-figure investment in grassroots organizing efforts, both here in Ohio and in Montana, where Democratic Senator John Tester is facing reelection. So this money, you know, is going to, they don’t say what the figure is, it’s just eight figures, but it’s going to pay for field organizing and training, outreach to communities of color and other specific constituencies, and also data and analytics.

Chris (18:50.675)

It’s amazing that this appears to work, just puppets for Trump. They’re not, they’re not voting their own thoughts. They’re not being elected leaders that go in and make decisions because they’re thoughtful about it. They just do whatever Trump says. That’s what we got. So we got Jim Jordan, a Trump sycophant pledges fealty 100% to the former president, not to America. Bernie Moreno, same thing. He’s just a Trump puppet. And these guys get together and go, I guess that,

We should see Frank Larose eventually drop out of this thing because he’s gotten getting, despite his attempt to be the chief Trumpsick fan of Ohio, he’s not getting any traction because he blew it so badly on the issues last year.

Lisa (19:23.211)

Yeah.

Lisa (19:33.794)

Well, I haven’t seen any ads from him. I mean, we’ve been seeing Moreno ads for a month now, and then Dolan, I started seeing Matt Dolan ads about two or three weeks ago. And I can’t wait for the primary to be over because he keeps using that cut Moreno does of Trump saying, we love Ohio, we love Bernie Moreno. And I’m like, ugh, if I have to hear that again, I’ll strangle myself.

Chris (19:54.443)

Yeah. It’s just mind boggling that Bernie Moreno could be the candidate. Anybody in Cleveland knows him. I mean, he was not this guy. And now to become a senator, he’s completely changed who he is. Is that who you really want serving the state? You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cuyahoga County children underserved when it comes to hospital services.

Wait, why is Akron Children’s Hospital planning a flag in Cuyahoga County?

Lisa (21:29.879)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (21:32.359)

I wonder though whether Akron proper would feel that it’s completely served for its children’s needs or if they look at this and think, I can’t get an appointment for six weeks to see you, why are you going into other territory that is served by other providers? Is this the best thing for the community? Maybe it is. Maybe you’re right. There’s not enough services in Cuyahoga County. Akron Children’s Hospital sees an opening. They’re

a very, very good hospital. They have one of the best reputations going. So it brings this high quality service into Cuyahoga County and maybe you can get a faster appointment. I just don’t know if this is really best for our region.

Lisa (22:04.832)

That’s what this is going. So it’s really just my phone.

Chris (22:18.035)

When you go to make an appointment now, how long does it take you to get one? No, I mean for children.

Lisa (22:20.847)

Oh my god.

Chris (22:54.507)

Ha ha ha.

Lisa (22:56.234)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (23:03.783)

And Lisa, you’re still seeing that too, right?

Lisa (23:06.001)

Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. No, and of course I don’t have any kids, but yeah, I mean, it’s like two or three months if I’m lucky to get to see my primary care provider. My endocrinologist, I make those a year ahead, so, you know, God help me if I have to miss an appointment. Never try to miss an appointment if you can.

Chris (23:16.779)

Yeah.

Chris (23:24.679)

Yeah, I had that same experience. Somebody’s trying to schedule a meeting when I had a six month ahead appointment with the dermatologist. Like I’m no way going to make that meeting. I’m going to the dermatologist. It’s become so hard to set it up that if you postpone it, it’s another six months. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We had a lot of questions last week when we discussed the discovery of credit card skimmers at Giant Eagle locations, including some in Northeast Ohio.

Publish the story Monday to answer some reader questions about these contraptions. Lisa, what did we learn?

Lisa (23:59.362)

Yeah, and it’s actually required reading, and there are great photographs showing pictures of some of these, what they’re called, skimming devices. They’re not uncommon, but they’re usually found outside, like outside ATMs or gas pumps because they can be installed without somebody catching you.

but they are finding them in stores as we found in Giant Eagle. And the FICO credits to core company says that 161,000 debit cards were compromised by skimmers in 2022. That was up 368% from the prior year. And it costs people about a billion dollars and up annually.

So these devices come in many forms. The Parma Police Department says the one in their Giant Eagle store was a plastic shell that basically went over the card reader at the register. Now, Giant Eagle is not providing photos of the skimmers that they found, but they sent the ones that they had only read cards magnetic strip. So not the tap to pay or the chip reader where you insert the short end of the card in. He said, or, you know, spokespeople say that most people use the insert.

And the strip, unfortunately the magnetic strip is often unencrypted, so it’s real easy to steal that information. But they also have shimmers. These are inserted in the chip reader. They can read the encryption and they, or you can have a false front on there that makes it look like it’s real. And these things can be installed in seconds, often under a minute. Scammers usually have to retrieve the device to get the stolen information, but now there are some that are transmitting that data wirelessly.

Chris (25:35.379)

Yeah, my takeaway from this is that you should probably never again insert a card that everybody should be moving to the tap system, which I’m going to have to talk to Sean about doing a story to explain to people how to do that who haven’t done it, how to use Apple Pay or tap their card, because you just don’t know. These things are so hidden. The scariest one was for the Shimmers that it could still be taking your payment.

Lisa (25:52.439)

Right.

Chris (26:03.227)

while secretly collecting your data and they don’t use it right away, that they could wait very long before they use it. So you have no idea even when it was stolen.

Lisa (26:05.69)

Right.

Lisa (26:13.45)

Yeah, the National Retail Federation says that, you know, tap to pay is the safest. And I always tap. I don’t like to swipe because it really wears out your card really fast. And they said, you know, the next safest would be using phone payment apps like Apple Pay or Google Pay. Like you said, the chip reader is safer than swiping, but not so much since we have shimmers now.

And they said, if you want to look for differences, look for color differences between the parts of the register, look for torn or missing security labels, evidence of tampering. If the chip reader is blocked and it forces you to swipe, that might be an issue as well. And they also have suggested, if you’re at like an ATM or a gas pump outside, wiggle the card reader, see if it comes off, see if the parts line up correctly.

Chris (27:01.547)

That would be disconcerting if you wiggled the car reader and it came off in your hand. You’d be like, did I break it? What happened here? You’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right. We’ve got time for one more, Leila. So Cleveland’s lead paint problem is well known and a lot of that paint is on windows and doors in old houses. How will a new grant help change that?

Lisa (27:04.274)

And came off.

Chris (29:01.535)

What I love about this is that it removes the lead paint. It doesn’t encapsulate it. It doesn’t seal it. A lot of the lead efforts in Cleveland are not removal as much as sealing it, which just kicks the can down the road. You gotta get it out of there. And by removing those windows and doors, the lead paint is gone forever. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. So, Leila, do we think Laura is gonna make it back? Boeing’s airliner problem is causing all sorts of airports to…

have canceled flights. Is she gonna make it back? Will she be here tomorrow?

Lisa (29:40.553)

Right.

Chris (29:43.036)

All right.

Yeah, I mean, it’s just that we’ve got a bunch of canceled flights at Hopkins because of that, right?

Lisa (29:45.803)

Yeah.

Chris (31:02.283)

The amazing anecdote out of that thing, the amazing anecdote out of that, other than watching the video from inside the plane, is that it sucked out an iPhone, you know, thousands and thousands of feet in the air, and it was intact when it was found. Yeah.

Lisa (31:15.758)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (31:21.933)

Yeah.

Lisa (31:22.451)

Yeah, some kid got his shirt sucked off.

Chris (31:25.787)

Yeah, this is would have been terrifying. It’s one of those things that makes you question why we fly. That’s it for the Tuesday episode. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Leila. Thanks to everybody who listens. And like we said, we expect Laura will be back on this podcast on Wednesday.